On a wave of goodwill and hoping to raise €100,000 for charity, 16 staff members from ILIM swam the English Channel and made €25,000 extra for their efforts, writes RONAN McGREEVY
LAST AUTUMN in the middle of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the head of quantitative research at Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM) had an idea to raise spirits and take minds off the implosion in the banking industry.
Glenn Treacy came up with a proposal that ILIM staff should swim the English Channel in relays for charity.
Last month and less than one year later, 16 staff members completed the swim in three relay teams.
An initial attempt by one of the teams to make the crossing on the weekend of September 12th had to be cancelled because of bad weather.
When better weather came, the three teams, Breac, Smugairles Róin and Trosc, succeeded in crossing the channel on the weekend of September 26th and 27th. Each team completed the swim within 14 hours and all the swimmers were able to fulfil their leg of proceedings.
Their chosen charity was the Irish Cancer Society’s night nursing service. Initially, the ILIM team hoped to raise €100,000.
Not only has that sum been raised, but it has been exceeded by €25,000 and the money is still coming in.
Night nurses offer respite to the relatives of terminally ill cancer victims, allowing those patients to die in their homes surrounded by their families. This programme provided more than 5,700 nights of care for more than 1,600 patients across the State last year.
“We knew to raise that kind of money in the present economic climate would take something extraordinary and swimming the English Channel was something extraordinary given that so few people were able to do it beforehand,” says Treacy.
“We found that when we went looking for help from people, that this struck a chord. We started out with a group of swimmers when the odds were completely against us. We couldn’t have conceived of a better outcome.”
Treacy says the swim was harder than most had anticipated despite extensive training in the Irish Sea and at night.
The fabled White Cliffs of Dover, which reflect sunlight for miles around, gave the impression that they had not travelled far while, at the Calais end, the French coastline never seemed as close as it looked.
Two teams swam from Dover to Calais on the Saturday and the other on the following day.
“The one thing that we could not prepare for was the tide,” he says recalling what made the last few hours of the swim particularly difficult. As the French coast hove into the view the teams were being pulled away from their landing spot by the tide.
Treacy says: “At one time you are coming to the big cliff on the French side, Cap Gris Nez [the closest point between England and France] and you think, ‘great, we’re going to do it’ and with each team, we underestimated the distances involved because we were fighting this very strong tide. We were always being pushed to one side. The coast seems to drop away from us.
“There was a time on our boat when we thought that we’d be home and dry in another hour, but it took us another two and a half hours.”
The swim was not without its mishaps, some serious, some not so serious. One swimmer got bitten on the hand by a seagull and another got bumped by a seal.
For Ian Murphy, from the Breac team, the achievement means that his fear of water, which he had before undertaking the challenge, has now gone. “People are amazed that a poor swimmer could achieve this. I have a new life skill. You can do anything you set your mind to with perseverance and hard work.”
It was a particularly proud achievement for Catherine Fox, the lifeguard at the ILIM pool, who helped train many of the swimmers to make the crossing.
When the proposal was made, there were just four employees out of a staff of almost 140 who were capable of swimming in the sea for any lengthy period of time.
Eighteen members of the project elected to do intensive classes aimed at completely overhauling their swimming technique. It helped that ILIM, which is based near Liberty Hall in Dublin, had its own pool, but it was an ordinary workplace aside from that.
“We all helped each other out, but when we started a lot of them couldn’t even swim properly. I was really proud of them all. They all worked really hard,” she said.
“For us it was a work project. To get three teams of non-swimmers across the Channel was amazing.”
She said the teams were buoyed by the realisation that they reached their €100,000 fundraising target even before they set out on their swim.
She was the first swimmer to enter the water going in at 3am on Saturday morning when you “couldn’t see the hand in front of your face” with the Smugairle Roan team.
“It was weird jumping into pitch black water. I took a deep breath and dived in. It was a bit disorientating at the beginning, but as long as you followed the boat you would be fine.”
As the strongest swimmer in the group, she took over near the end of the 32 kilometre (21 mile) stretch, when tides threatened to scupper all their endeavours.
“I nearly killed myself. I literally sprinted for the whole hour because the pilot said that if I didn’t, we’d all be in the water for a further four or five hours because of the tides.”
Similarly, swimmer Stephen Moffitt (36) who also swam with the Smugairle Róin team, completed the team’s swim, but nearly collapsed in the process.
“We were told that if we did not up the stroke rate, we would add hours to our swim so I did it,” he recalled.
“I hit a physical wall after 40 minutes. With about 200 yards to go, it was like a red light came on and my heart-rate soared. I started hyperventilating. I could smell the sand underneath my feet but I was absolutely exhausted. I got home with the encouragement of everyone else and through complete stubbornness.”
Team Breac, the last team to complete the task, had initial disappointment when their scheduled swim was cancelled because of bad weather.
They finally got a chance to complete their swim on the Sunday with near perfect conditions for the time of year.
Swimmer David Jones says they had got the best weather in the end and the English Channel was a lot warmer than expected “in comparison to the Irish Sea”.
He says the initial cancellation was a “real mental challenge” for the team given their level of preparation, but it had been worthwhile in the end.
“I know now what I am capable of achieving when you put your mind to it. The support from everybody was crucial.”
The relatively clement conditions were a pleasant surprise for all involved after the rigours of cold water swimming in the Irish Sea.
Colm O’Brien from the Smugairle Róin team says: “The water was so much warmer than we had expected. We had trained in some pretty cold waters and difficult conditions, so we couldn’t have been better prepared. It was great that we were able to enjoy the relatively calm waters and the whole swim experience.”
Treacy says the highlight of the whole trip was the fact that the two teams who finished their swim on the Saturday were there cheering on Team Breac when it finished the swim.
“There was really a feeling that, while we were out there, the whole company was rooting for us.
“The group who volunteered to do this couldn’t even do three or four lengths of the pool when they started and now they are fine swimmers. The spirit of the people to embrace the challenge is the reason why we raised the money. These people really put their necks on the line,” he says.
“No idea or dream is too off the wall and if you are passionate enough, then you’ll convince other people to join you. The positive power of people united behind a common goal has been staggering to witness.”
