Putney Cricket Club raised over £4,500 for 3 charities over Easter


(L-R) Darren, Mark, Ben, Paul, Hamish and Maxine

On the Easter weekend 3 members of Putney Cricket Club, Ben Brook, Paul McCann and Mark Wibberley and a separate team of 3 friends, took part in the 24-Hour fundraising swimming event, “2swim4life” at the Guildford Lido.

The format - swimming a mile distance every hour on the half-hour in relay (each person completing their 8 miles spread over 24 hours), the event commenced at 9.30am on Saturday, ending an exhausting 24 hours later on a bright Easter Sunday morning.

Having set up a tent on the Friday evening, the atmosphere and camaraderie around the pool was fantastic. The weather Gods were very kind to the swimmers, beautiful warm 24deg C sunny weather during the day, gave way to very cold clear night skies lit by full moon. Night time temperatures were difficult to deal with (pulling on a wet costume in darkness in 6deg C temperatures is not much fun, and getting into the 19deg C water was in fact a relief at 4am!!).


(L-R) Mark, Ben and Paul

Ably supported poolside by friends and family the team managed to raise over £4,500 for CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young), The MIX (supporting Mental Health) and First Touch (supporting sick and prematurely born babies at St George’s - Tooting).

Mark Wibberley said: "A huge thanks to the guys above, the other team members, Maxine Bennett, Hamish Clarke and the unflappable Darren Lapham and of course the poolside team of Megan Wibberley and Mark Smith for all their efforts and support in raising the money for the charities. The Virgin Money Giving page is still open for donations and we’d love to reach that magic £5k mark with the support of SW15 readers" . The link is provided below where further info on the event can be found.

May 7, 2019