How far would you go to help raise funds for DPM’s Outreaches? Would you go so far as to brave the cold waters of the English Channel to swim across it? This is exactly what some DPM staff members and their friends did in order to raise £25,000 for DPM Outreaches.

We've done it !!!

A Summary of the Big Day:

On Tuesday, 20 July 2010 we set out on Sea Satin from Dover Marina for our start at Shakespeare Beach. After greasing up, Craig jumped in the water and swam to the beach for the start of an amazing day.




The claxton sounded at 05h27 and he plunged back in the water to begin the swim from England to France. Rotating swimmers each hour, we swam through miraculously calm waters with Jo next in the water followed by Peter, Julie, Rob and Karen.







Despite feeling a bit queasy from the movement of the boat and the heat of the day, each swimmer put in great swims to slowly but surely move us further from the English Coast to within site of the lighthouse at Cap Gris Nez.





We passed the mid way point in the seventh hour of swimming making our way through lots of seaweed, jellyfish and other debris in the separation zone which separates the shipping lanes.








With all the swimmers having done 2 hour long swims, Craig went in for his third swim with 2 nautical miles to go. The tide was strong, but he set Jo up for a very exciting finish as she reached the headland less than a minute before being swept round Cap Gris Nez which could have cost us another couple of hours in the water before reaching the shore.




Jo landed at 18h41 making a time of 13hrs 14 minutes, considerably quicker than we had expected.

We all jumped in the water for the so called "glory-swim" to join her on the rocks to celebrate together and get a few photos