Spare a thought for the energetic staff at Ancholme Leisure Centre tonight, they have set themselves a gruelling challenge of an overnight 140-mile swim in aid of Sport Relief.
Forty volunteers will take it in turns to swim 20 lengths of the leisure centre’s 25 metre pool between 8pm on Saturday, March 24 and 8am the next morning. They’ll each have to swim about 4.5 miles (or 9,216 lengths) in 12 hours in teams of four to complete the 140 mile trip – equal to the distance comedian David Walliams swam along the Thames for Sport Relief last year.
Staff members ranging from receptionists to life guards are training hard for the epic swim and want to raise as much money as possible for Sport Relief to help improve the lives of people in the UK and across the world. To sponsor them visit
http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/ancholmeleisurecentre140mileovernight12hourswim or pick up a sponsor form at the leisure centre.
Everyone who sponsors online will be entered into a raffle with many top prizes ranging from beauty treatments and a photo shoot to shopping vouchers and VIP tickets to the Sugar Hut nightclub featured in The Only Way is Essex.
You can also make a donation in one of the collection boxes on reception at Ancholme Leisure Centre, Hewson House or Civic Centre. Leisure centre duty manager Andy Farr said: “We’ve set ourselves the target of matching the distance comedian David Walliams swam in the Thames last year. “There are 40 of us taking part and we’ll have to swim more than 9,000 lengths – that’s about 4.5 miles. “I’d like to thank all the swimmers taking part and everyone who is supporting us, especially the Sugar Hut for the vouchers and Lincsquad who paid for the pool hire. “It’s going to be a very long night but we’re all training hard.
“Please do take the time to sponsor us or make a donation, we want to raise as much as we can.”