Brentford Woman Jumping in Thames for Chiswick RNLI

Sara Ward seeking sponsors for her 5km open water swim

Sara in training for her epic swim

Participate

Friends Rally Round After Death of Brentford Mum

Donations Drive for Unwanted Laptops in Brentford

Sign up for our Brentford newsletter

Comment on this story on the

Local business owner, Sara Ward, is taking to the Thames to help raise funds for the RNLI.

Sara, who runs Hen Corner in Brentford, and aims to live the country life in the city, discovered the joys of Open Water Swimming just last September in between lockdowns, and has now signed up for swimming 5km in the annual event, Dock2Dock, at the London Royal Docks on Saturday 4 September.

She usually swims in one of the Bedfont Lakes, near Heathrow Airport, which is managed by Love Open Water.

“Whilst swimming in lakes, rivers and the sea can be wonderful and exciting, there are also many dangers that sadly take young lives every year.”

Throughout the UK, there were nearly 250 accidental deaths in water last year, and over 30 in just one week last month (July 2021)

“Swimming outdoors is a great way to cool down, but open water can have real dangers even for experienced swimmers.”

“I always swim with other experienced swimmers and often within the safety of a managed setting like that at London’s Royal Docks.”

Sara is raising money for Chiswick RNLI, her local lifeboat station, who not only save lives in the water but run water safety schools sessions to prevent unnecessary accidents.

“I’d love the money that I raise to be used to help teach water safety to our local school children. Here in Brentford we not only have the River Thames, but also the River Brent and Grand Union Canal. I can see how locks and weirs look appealing to young people on a hot day as the perfect place for a fun swim, but this can be so dangerous. We need to teach water safety alongside swimming lessons”

Sara is fundraising through Facebook .

Find Articles Like This Useful? Help Us Produce More

This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism.

Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets.

We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more.

However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do.

We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area.

A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site.

One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute.

If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor.

For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site.

 

August 30, 2021


Bookmark and Share