5:34pm Monday 18th August 2008
AN Upham couple successfully swam the length of England's largest lake at the weekend and raised nearly £3,000 for Cancer Research.
Matt Amesbury, 29, and his partner Jenny Cox, 30, of Widlers Lane, Upham, took six hours to swim the length of Windermere, in Cumbria, yesterday, (August 17), supported by family and friends.
The couple spent a year training for the task as a tribute to a university friend of Mr Amesbury's who died of cancer.
Mr Amesbury is a research scientist at Southampton University and Miss Cox is a primary school teacher.
They did their training at Southampton University swimming pool on the Highfield Campus.
Mr Amesbury said: "The weather was quite good. We had a couple of rainstorms along the way, but to the most part the weather was fair. The most important thing is we had a strong southerly wind that blew us along nicely.
"We had about 20 family and friends come up to see us do the swim and some of those were in kayaks supporting us on the lake. It was nice to see some friendly faces. Those that stayed on the shore collected money in buckets and we raised an extra £250 on the day."
The couple have raised just under £3,000 and hope to surpass that when all their sponsor money is collected.
Mr Amesbury said he and his partner probably wouldn't do another long swim but would like to do something different to raise money for Cancer Research in the future.
He added: "We were really tired when we finished the swim and because we had been horizontal for six hours our legs were like jelly when we got out of the water!
"We are pleased with the amount we have raised and the support we received. The swim was a tribute to one of my uni friends who died of cancer, so hopefully it was a good tribute to him and all the people we know who have died of cancer. I hope the money we have raised will help other people with cancer."
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