It wasn’t the circling shark, toxic jellyfish swarms or 20ft swells that sank me...
... it was my autistic son begging ‘Don’t leave me, Mummy’, says swimmer of the moment that ended gruelling challenge
hours and ‘doggy-paddling on one arm’ the rest of the way.
Dylan loved the adventure. They swam with dolphins, and hiked in the volcanic tundra. His autistic traits and ticks diminished.
Here, too, Beth began to consider the Ocean’s 7. Back in England, she tried a feat which had never been achieved before – swimming 27 miles, against the current, from Cornwall to the Isles of Scilly. Despite becoming a ‘human pinball’ for jellyfish, she was amazed to find it straightforward.
The planning took nearly three years. A local association for each stretch helps with booking boats and crew – known as ‘pilots’ – and organising dates. The training, too, was gruelling, involving intense mental preparations. ‘ Experts reckon channel swimming is 80 per cent mental and emotional.
‘I’d do mental toughness days where I’d not sleep and train in the morning, or not eat all day, then train hard in the evening, so my body got used to exhaustion and hunger.’ Beth jokes being a single mum meant she already had the endurance part nailed.
Nevertheless, the first swim, in October 2016 across the Catalina Strait to Los Angeles, was nearly disastrous. There are sharks and jellyfish, strong tides and currents. But worse – a stomach bug struck three hours into the swim.
‘It should have been a ten-hour swim, but it turned into a 19-hour, six-minute pukefest. It was hell, but I did it. I kept thinking, if I can do this, I can do anything.’
Beth and Dylan returned to Hawaii for the Molokai Strait in December 2016 and, shark notwithstanding, it ‘felt great’.
There were two attempts at the Cook Strait, from New Zealand’s North Island to the South, in February 2017 after strong currents caused the first bid to be abandoned. It meant the relative ease of the ten-mile Strait of Gibraltar, despite the risk from shipping traffic, was a relief. Beth made it to Africa in four and a half hours, and was back in time for lunch.
Physically, she had never felt better. But Dylan was becoming distressed on swim days, when he would be looked after by a friend. He was having nightmares, sleeping in Beth’s bed, and his traits and ticks were re-emerging.
‘His fears were coming out in his behaviour,’ Beth says. ‘ He was telling me loud and clear that the swimming was starting to stress him out. When we were alone, he’d say, “Mummy, I’m so proud of you. I believe in you – you’re going to do all of them.” But the day before a swim he’d say, “Please don’t leave me, Mummy – I’m not safe.’’ ’
The day before the fifth crossing, in Northern Japan in July, Dylan hid in their hotel room cupboard. Beth was emotional. After this swim, the next two – the English and North Channels – meant Dylan could stay in their home, and be with family.
But when she got into the water the doubts became all-consuming. ‘After two hours I told the boat I wanted to get out. I’d never done that; not even when I’d come faceto- face with a shark,’ she says. ‘They urged me to give it another hour. I gave them five, until there was four miles left. They said, “If you can get through it, you’ll have broken the record. Then you can tell Dylan he’s more important.”
‘But they didn’t get it. That would have been false and empty. I had to show him he was more important, and that meant stopping there.
‘Back at the hotel, Dylan said, “You’re back early.” When I explained he said, like only an autist can, ‘Well, you’re a bit of a disappointment then.’’ ’
It’s a decision Beth has never regretted; nor does she plan to complete her seven swims. Filming is nearly complete on the documentary, which director Stefan Stuckert from Channel 4’s Peep Show, hopes to release this year.
For now, Beth is content to focus on Dylan. ‘ I’m all for learning new things, but water is where the world makes sense to me – it’s my solace.’
‘I kept thinking, if I can do this I can do anything’ ‘I had to show Dylan he was more important’