Instructor to swim equivalent of English Channel down the Nene to raise money for deaf swimming coaching

Two swimming instructors are preparing to swim 22.3 miles down the River Nene to raise money for PDDCS. That's the equivalent of swimming the English Channel to France!

Lisa Ryan and friend Julie will be swimming from Barnwell, near Oundle, in Northamptonshire to Milton Ferry Bridge at the popular Ferry Meadow's Country Park in Peterborough with the aim of raising enough money to pay for sign language lessons for swimming instructors so that local deaf people have access to swimming classes.

The 'Nene Channel Challenge' will take place on August 2nd and take in the twisting course of the Nene. Lisa already provides swimming classes for deaf children through the PDDCS with the help of interpreters.

"The Nene Channel Challenge was born after we decided to do the channel equivalent." Lisa said. 

"We have a safety canoeist who has volunteered to watch the two of us swimming! We are hoping to do it wet suit free too and it's getting scarily close now! We need to raise a minimum of £1600 to do what we want to do!"

Upper Barnwell

Lisa and Julie hope to raise enough money to pay for sign language courses so that they can offer swimming lessons to the entire deaf community themselves. Across the UK, there is a severe lack of swimming lessons that are accessible to deaf children and adults. This limits opportunities for leading healthy lifestyles and means that deaf children are less confident and safe in and around water. 

Lisa was inspired by meeting Amy Casselden, a PDDCS committee member and parent, and her son Jack.

"Due to meeting Amy and her wonderful son Jack and beginning to teach him, I quickly found out about the gap in deaf children participating in swimming and decided to do what I could to start address it!" She said.

Milton Ferry Bridge 22 miles downstream

"It costs a lot of money to do the channel and we wanted money raised to be used by the charity for something specific so decided to do the channel distance equivalent but somewhere where it's free of charge!

"I have taught swimming for over 25 years now and am very passionate about children learning this valuable life skill and I also have started this in Swaziland Africa. 

"All children deserve the chance to swim!"

Lisa and Julie are aiming to raise £2000 but need more sponsors. They are appealing for people to share the details of their online sponsorship page and donate. You can visit the page here or visit the Nene Channel Challenge Page