Friends swim their way to thousands of pounds for local charity

Two friends from Exeter have raised over £2,200 between them for local charity Hospiscare. 
Suzanne Lovelace and Sadie Evans, landlady at The Royal Oak, St Thomas set themselves the “Channel Challenge”; swimming the width of the channel within a two week window in February.
The channel is 22 miles long, the equivalent of 1,408 lengths of a 25 meter pool.  Suzanne, who is 70 in June said she would “do it all over again” upon completion of the challenge.  She also added that next on her challenge bucket list is to complete a triathlon!
Suzanne and Sadie met whilst swimming at the Riverside, struck up a friendship and between them created this challenge. 
Both Suzanne and Sadie undertook the swim for different reasons; Suzanne wanted a challenge for her seventieth year and Sadie has been swimming as part of her recovery from breast cancer.  Both however were united in their choice to support the charity Hospiscare.
Both were delighted with their fundraising.  Events fundraiser Celia Wilkinson said: “Suzanne and Sadie have raised between them an incredible amount of money for Hospiscare. 
“The challenge is not your average fundraiser, and their dedication to the swim and their fundraising has been second to none.  I’m so pleased for them both that they completed the swim in their set time and absolutely smashed their fundraising goals.”
If this has inspired you to take up a challenge in 2014 but you’re not sure where to start or what you could do, please contact Celia at Hospiscare on 01392 688052 or c.wilkinson@hospiscare.co.uk