Bolton: BMSS to swim distance from London to Paris

Bolton Metro Swimming Squad (BMSS) members will take to the pool at The Jason Kenny Centre, Bolton to swim the distance from Lord’s Cricket Ground, London to Paris, France.

The swimmers are raising funds to split equally between The Ruth Strauss Foundation and their squad.

Beginning at 3pm, for five hours each swimmer will stroke tirelessly to put the miles on the clock and reach Paris in the time limit.

The swimmers are taking the plunge for the 213-mile (343km) distance, which equates to 13,711 lengths of the 25- metre pool.

The team have chosen to support The Ruth Strauss Foundation as one of BMSS’ swimmers recently lost their dad to non-smoking lung cancer.

The foundation provided essential emotional support to the family through this difficult time and the squad want to give something back by swimming this event in memory of the life of Jonathon Priestley.

Lord’s Cricket Ground to Paris was the distance chosen as the foundation was founded by former England Cricket Captain Andrew Strauss in honour of his wife, who passed away from lung cancer in 2018.

Ric Howard, Head Coach at BMSS said: “We’ve chosen this distance as the Olympics are in Paris next year and we regularly undertake Olympic sets at training.

“I have faith that the swimmers will smash this challenging target, to ensure that we keep the opportunity of advanced swimming available to the future generations of Bolton swimmers, as well as raising funds for a charity close to BMSS’ heart.”

BMSS’s Chairperson, Charlotte Williams said, “Our swimmers are accomplished at their sport, we can think of no better way to raise funds to ensure that the foundation can continue to raise awareness for research into the fight against nonsmoking lung cancers.”

The swimmers have already raised a whopping £4225 and are aiming to beat the £5000 mark.

Anyone who wishes to support the swimmers and donate can do so using the link https://bit.ly/bmssfundraising