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A group of swimmers with dementia are on the final stretch of a marathon swim, as they close in on 30km target they set themselves in January this year.
Each week at Aquasplash, Splashchat – a group organised by Dementia Jersey – enjoy a swimming session followed by a coffee and chat.
The session is jointly run by the Occupational Therapists, the Memory Assessment Service, Dementia Jersey, and the Aquasplash swimming team.
Earlier this year, Dementia Jersey decided they would add a challenge to the group’s swim session and set them a target of 30km – approximately the distance from Gorey to Carteret.
The Dementia Jersey team have been recording how far the group has swum each week and as of Tuesday 27 June, they were only 4,000 meters away from their target.
“The team at AquaSplash would like to congratulate all the Splashchat swimmers on their efforts so far and wish them well for the final stretch of the challenge,” said Steve Dunford, contract manager at the AquaSplash.
On average, the group have swum around 2,000 meters a week and they are certain they will reach 30km in their next session on Tuesday 4 July, when the AquaSplash teaching team and Jersey long-distance swimmers will be staging a presentation to celebrate the group achieving their goal.
“Our SplashChat members should feel very proud of taking on this challenge and the fantastic achievement of completing such a distance,” said Wendy Buckley, Interim CEO of Dementia Jersey.
This article was written by Lela-Mintaka Taylor (16), who is on work experience with Bailiwick Express.
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