March in the swim community

NOWCA shares an inspiring young swimmer’s story, and Mental Health Swims wants to hear from participants. Stay up to date with our outdoor swimming community news for March 2025

NOWCA: 14 year old Super Archie swims 400km for clean water

Only seven years ago, Archie was afraid to swim with his head in the water. Now at 14 years old, Archie (also known as Super Archie within his open water swimming community) has embarked on an incredible challenge: swimming 400km! Yes, four hundred kilometres! Why? To raise money for those who lack access to clean water.

Monies raised will go to The Water Project, a charity that provides clean water to Sub Saharan African countries. This ambitious goal is equivalent to the width of the Mozambique Channel, which is the nearest stretch of water for many within this region.

Archie shared his motivation, saying, “I am determined to make a difference and contribute to this important cause. With your support, we can provide clean water to those in need. Together, let’s make a positive impact and bring hope to communities around the world.”

Over summer, Archie regularly swam at Queenford Lakes. He has continued swimming over winter – but has spent more time in the swimming pool to reach his weekly distance target of 10km.

So far, Super Archie has swum over 200km and raised over 80% of his fundraising target of £1,000. He aims to reach 400km by the end of July this year!

If you would like to show your support, you can make a donation at Archie’s JustGiving page: justgiving.com/page/swimmozambiquechannel400k

Mental Health Swims: Have you been for a Mental Health swim? We’d love to hear from you

If you have ever attended a Mental Health Swims meet up, even just once, we would love to hear from you. Feedback is invaluable to us as it helps us to reflect on and review our processes, policies and training, and overall improve the quality of our mental health peer support. It’s also a wonderful opportunity for us to share any positive feedback with our Swim Host volunteers.

If you would like to provide us with some feedback, please email the team, who can then direct you to our feedback form.

If you haven’t been to a Mental Health Swim but would like to, then you can find your nearest group on our swim map.

We welcome anyone along to our swim meet ups and participants can swim, dip, paddle or toe-dip and can do what they are most comfortable with – we are firmly focused on dips, not distance and community, not competition.

We hope to see you at a swim soon!