austraLasia #2704 Old Scholar, Dominic College Tasmania, to swim English Channel
HOBART: 1 September 2010 -- "After a lot of waiting around it looks
like it could be on for a 2 am departure tomorrow morning. I’ve had a
frustrating two and a half weeks wait with the weather, and due to more
swimmers arriving to swim on this set of tides with my original pilot,
I've had to find another pilot who was not as busy to take me across or
give up my swim this year…. it means paying out for another £
2000 for a pilot unfortunately but its the only way I’ll get a swim".
These are the words of Mark Scanlon (Dominic College Glenorchy, Tas,
old scholar, year 1997) who left Perth on Friday 13 August in
preparation for his attempt to swim the English Channel, from Dover to
Calais and raise much needed funds for the National Stroke Foundation. And
by the way, he did happen to mention on his web page that a
crocodile has been spotted
in the Channel off Boulogne-sur-Mer on the French coast! Now that's
certainly possible off Scarborough in WA, but France? Certainly one
for the books!
Mark is now a Western Australian-based ocean swimmer and was inspired
to swim the 32km after a friend successfully swam the Channel in 2007
and raised funds for children’s cancer. Even though the distance is
officially 32km, most swims are inbetween 36-40km due to the large
tidal currents. The water temperature is between 13-16 degrees and to
make the crossing official, no wetsuits are allowed – only traditional
swim briefs and grease applied to the body. It is interesting to note
that more people have successfully climbed Mt Everest than completed
the English Channel crossing, with only 10% of attempts resulting in a
successful crossing.
Mark chose the National Stroke Foundation as the
benefactor of his fundraiser because a good friend of his was struck
down with a stroke at the start of 2009. His friend fully recovered,
but at 35 it goes to show that it can happen to anyone. In fact, behind
heart disease, strokes were the second biggest cause of death in
Australia in 2008.
In addition, in late 2009 while on a training run
with a friend, a woman ran out of her front door screaming for help.
Inside Mark and his friend found her husband had collapsed on the floor
unconscious in a pool of vomit after suffering a severe stroke. They
performed first aid until the ambulance arrived. The man is alive today
but will live with a permanent disability for the rest of his life.
This experience brought home to Mark how little is known about strokes
and their effects, and solidified his goal to raise money for the
Foundation.
In training for this event, Mark has spent his days
doing:
• 5-6km pool session on weekday mornings
• Boot camp style dry land circuit training on Monday, Wednesday and
Friday evenings
• 6-7km pool or ocean swim on Tuesday and Thursday evenings
• 8-12km pool session / ocean swim on Saturdays
This has resulted in Mark swimming up to 70km a week in readiness for
his attempt.
Everyone at
Dominic is obviously very proud of Mark and wish him well. _________________ AustraLasia is an
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