Jess Johnston

I'm fundraising for Bowel Cancer UK

Andrew always loved to swim. In August this year we invite you to join a swimming challenge to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK in his memory.

Every 15 minutes someone is diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK. The Swim15 challenge invites people to swim 15km – or any challenge of your choosing – between 1 and 31 August. More information can be found here.

15km is equivalent to 600 laps in a 25m pool – just under 20 laps per day. This is quite an undertaking, and we don’t expect many (or any!) can commit to this. However, there are lots of ways you could join in, some examples are below:

- Form a team to complete the 15km challenge (e.g. a team of 6 doing 100 laps each)

 - Choose your own individual distance target* 

-  ‘See how you go’ – no need for a target

 - Simply go for one swim in memory of Andrew

Bowel Cancer UK has a ‘calculator’ on the event homepage that you can use to help set a goal (Click here and scroll down). 

Of course, the aim is to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK and all the brilliant work they do supporting people affected by bowel cancer, including funding research to improve the treatment of the disease. We have created a Team page where donations in Andrew’s memory can be made. This can be shared far and wide – don’t be shy!

We will also track our combined swimming efforts from around the world to see what we can achieve as a group. We ask you to either input your swims into this spreadsheet or join our WhatsApp group and send your updates (e.g. Today I swam 200m!). There will be some prizes announced e.g. longest individual swim, most interesting location. Please snap a photo of one of your swims and send it to our WhatsApp group to showcase your efforts and motivate us all.  

*In 2019, Andrew was part of a team of 4 swimmers who completed the 19.7km distance from Perth to Rottnest Island. This means he swam almost 5km in one day, equivalent to 200 laps. This is just one suggestion of a smaller target you might like to aim for.