Dementia Jersey Swimmers Success in their Long-Distance Target.
14 swimmers from the Dementia Jersey Splash Chat Group have taken on a marathon challenge at Aquasplash. Yesterday they reached their target of 30,000m.
Aquasplash pool hosts a weekly swim session in partnership with the Occupational Therapists, the Memory Assessment Service (MAS) and Dementia Jersey. The Dementia Jersey Splash and Chat Group sees members and volunteers come to site to utilise the swimming pool, then go on to socialise with a coffee.
In January 2023, the team who support the swimmers, thought it would be a great idea to add a challenge to the sessions. In turn they decided to set a target of 30 kilometres – 30,000 metres – to swim. This is the approximately the distance from Gorey to Carteret. Week upon week the swimmers have been recording the completed laps of the pool, the pool at Aquasplash is 25m meaning a total of 1,200 lengths were needed to complete the challenge. Each week the team were averaging 2000m or 80 laps and today they were able to swim their final laps to complete their challenge.
Yesterday the Aquasplash Swim team and Jersey Long-Distance Swimmers held a presentation to celebrate the group on reaching their target.
Wendy Buckley, Interim CEO Dementia Jersey comments: “We’ve had 14 members and volunteers swimming weekly, ably supported by the Occupational Therapists, who have all enjoyed participating in this unique challenge, which has been great to be part of. Swimming can be a great way to keep active and socialise, helping people with dementia live well for longer. Our SplashChat members should feel very proud of taking on this challenge and the fantastic achievement of completing such a distance. We look forward to planning the next one now!”
Steve Dunford, Contract Manager of Aquasplash added:
“We are delighted to be able to provide this space for the members of Dementia Jersey’s Splash Chat group. Aquasplash is committed to providing access to our swimming pool for everyone, and we were very excited to hear about the group’s challenge.
“We have been watching each week as they get closer and closer to their 30km target and been cheering them on from poolside. The team at Aquasplash would like to congratulate all the Splash Chat swimmers on their efforts so far and wish them well for the final stretch of the challenge.”
We want to say a massive congratulations to all the swimmers, volunteers and teams who assisted to make this happen. It is an exceptional challenge for anyone to complete. We look forward to hosting your next challenge!
Swimming has incredible benefits for both your body and mind and is a low-impact way to exercise, no matter what your fitness abilities. Aquasplash has a whole timetable of swimming sessions, from family swims with splash-tastic fun for all ages to lane swimming and casual swimming for those looking to improve their fitness. To find out more take a look at our