Will you join Eleanor in her swimming challenge?
Eleanor Reddington is looking for people to join her in her swimming challenge – to swim one mile in 70 different places before her 70th birthday next July
“You can guess what most people are saying about my swimming challenge, can’t you? Mad. Bonkers.”
Eleanor Reddington’s challenge to swim 70 miles before her 70th birthday might seem bonkers to some but she’s doing well so far, having completed over a third of her target since she began the swimming challenge just after her 69th birthday in July.
A unique swimming challenge
Eleanor plans to swim one mile in 70 different places over the course of the year, raising money for Aspire, a charity that supports people with spinal cord injuries.
Eleanor, who herself has spine damage that requires her to use crutches, has swum 25 miles of her swimming challenge so far. Three of those miles was with Outdoor Swimmer editor Ella in the Jubilee River in Surrey.
“I wanted to do something different,” Eleanor told us. “I’ve been taking part in various swimming challenges raising money for Aspire for nearly 20 years, and wanted to set myself something new. And this is what I came up with!”
“We actually swam under the M4!” Eleanor told us. “Considering I don’t live anywhere near the M4, that was a bit of fun.”
Fancy joining Eleanor?
Eleanor has met lots of different people in lots of different locations since she began her swimming challenge, and she is now on the lookout for more people to join her or share ideas for new places to swim.
“I have two basic criteria for my swims. They’ve got to be accessible because I’m on elbow crutches, and secondly, I don’t want to do them on my own, for safety reasons,” said Eleanor.
Eleanor is based in North Wales but is happy to travel to other locations in the UK for her swims, particularly if she can fit in several swims over a few days.
Would you like to join Eleanor for part of her swimming challenge? If so, email Eleanor eleanor.reddington@btopenworld.com and she’d be thrilled to hear from you.
You can follow Eleanor’s progress and donate to her chosen charity at justgiving.com
Abigail Whyte
Abi writes swimming news stories and features for the Outdoor Swimmer website and manages the social media channels. She loves to swim, run, hike and SUP close to her home in Herefordshire. While she’s a keen wild swimmer, Abi is new to the world of open water events and recently completed her first open water mile. She has previously written for The Guardian, BBC Countryfile Magazine, BBC History Magazine and Ernest Journal.
