Kenilworth swimmers celebrate success in English Channel swim to raise money for charity

Hardy swimmers from Kenilworth have completed a relay challenge of crossing the English Channel in 15 hours.
The Kenilworth Koalas teamThe Kenilworth Koalas team
The Kenilworth Koalas team

The team of Ashley Ball, Nik Collins, Mark Richards and Gary Kind of the Kenilworth Koalas, took turns to swim stages of the 22-miles across the stretch of water to raise money for the charity Aspire.

The members of the Kenilworth Over 30 Swim Club trained in open waters during lockdown while the swimming pool at Abbey Fields was closed.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Aspire is a charity which helps spinal injured people to live their lives independently and organises the fundraising challenge.

Speaking after the swim, which started in Dover on Sunday (September 6) at 1am, Gary said: "Yesterday was a big day.

"We completed our relay Channel swim in 15 hours.

"The event was much tougher than we had prepared ourselves for in all honesty, but equally something we won't forget in a hurry.

"As this was a relay swim it was a total team effort and we all completed the same swim times over the event.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"A huge thank you to all our swim leader Alaine, supporters, sponsors and families.

"Through our training period and the Channel swim we have raised over £11,000 so far for Aspire, which is incredible.

"Thank you so much."

The team each have their own Justgiving pages to raise money for the cause.