French swimmer to ‘escape’ from Alderney
A FRENCH swimmer will attempt to swim from Alderney to Goury, France next Tuesday to raise money for an eyesight charity.
Open-water specialist Jacques Tuset, 55, has swum from famous prison islands to the nearest coast in the past and he has made Alderney his next challenge.
Tuset has so far ‘escaped’ from Robben Island in South Africa, Alcatraz in the USA, Rottnest Island in Australia and Devil’s Island in Guyana, among others. He was also the first Frenchman to swim from Jersey to France and from Germany to Denmark.
He will set out from Alderney some time between 10 and 11am from Longis Beach with a safety boat nearby, but without a wetsuit.
His swim is in aid of research and treatment of choroideremia, a genetic eye disease which slowly turns the patient blind, starting with peripheral vision and progressing to the centre of the eye. It mainly affects men.
Several Alderney residents have completed the swim in the past. In August 2003, Paul Clark swam from Alderney to Goury and completed his challenge in six hours and 20 minutes, raising £6,000 for St Anne’s School and the RNLI.
Years before that, the late Jon Kay-Mouat, former president of the States of Alderney, was the first person to compelte the swim, a feat he completed without a wetsuit.
