The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Swim makes a splash for charity
Last month Peterborough Werrington Rotary hosted their annual Rotaryswim. This popular event took place over a three hour period at the Jack Hunt School swimming pool in Peterborough.
Club members turned out in force to enable the event to proceed smoothly.
The event was sponsored by Macintyre Hudson Accountants, Convert Training and Nene Construction. Club members would like to thank these sponsors for their involvement.
The swimmers swam for either 25 or 55 minutes. There were 46 swimmers in total, 10 individual entries with the remainder split into five teams.
One of the teams was from the Peterborough Special Olympics Swimming Group who earlier in the year competed at the National Special Olympics. They swam to raise funds to enable the group to continue its good work in the city. Individual Rotarians from other Rotary Groups swam. There was even a baby swimming with other family members. In fact there were swimmers of all ages and abilities. All participants were presented with a certificate and commemorative medal recognising the number of lengths swum.
All participants were sponsored and all swam their hardest to achieve the maximum number of lengths that they were capable of swimming in the time. The charities they were raising funds for were: British Heart Foundation, Breast Cancer UK, Alzheimer Research, Parkinsons UK, Sue Ryder Care, NGNPUK and a scanner appeal. In case readers, like me, are not aware NGNPUK is a small local charity committed to raising funds for syringe drivers in the local area.
Syringe drivers are the devices that give essential pain relief to people in palliative care. They can help people remain at home with their families instead of having to go into a hospital or a hospice. At present there were only two machines available to cover Whittlesey, Eye, Stanground and Thorney.
Half of the sponsor money will be retained by the organisers(Peterborough W er ring ton Rotary) to go towards Rotary’s own charity.
The remainder will go to the swimmers for distribution to their chosen charities. It is expected that in excess of £3,000 will have been raised at this event.
The first swimmers entered the water at nine o’clock and it was all over by midday. It was a most satisfactory and enjoyable morning for all concerned. Healthy exercise, lots of fun, and money raised for deserving causes – well done everyone!