On Tuesday the 19th of March at York Sport Village, the University’s Swimming & Water Polo Club (UYSWC) held their annual Charity Swimathon.
Sat at a table by the reception desk, covered in post-it notes filled with names and kilometres noted in Sharpie, UYSWC Social Sec George and first-year Jem spoke to Vision about what was going on.
“We set up [this] charity event for tackling ovarian cancer. The reason why we’re holding this is that one of our members way back in 2009 sadly caught ovarian cancer.”
“We all set a target, we set up a fundraiser as well,” George tells us.
“Every year we give ourselves a goal and what we’re trying to do is reach that goal whilst raising money.”
The money raised will be donated to the national charity Target Ovarian Cancer. The societies hope the event will raise awareness of the condition during March, which is also Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.
For the sessions this morning, some people came in for a rather fresh 6 am to start their laps of the pool.
“We had one lad who was here for a good 7 hours in the pool,” Jem adds.
We asked where to find this sports superstar but George told us “he’s gone home to have a sleep”.
So far, collectively they have swum 100k and raised over £500, and with the rest of the week to reach their £1000 target, it’s looking pretty good.
“For context,” George says, “I’ve done 12k and that’s taken me about 4 and a half hours.”
There’s still time to donate here and help them reach their target before the end of the week.
The event was also supported by the UOY Octopush and UOY Triathlon.