WILTSHIRE Air Ambulance pilots, paramedics and staff will be embarking on a mammoth virtual canal swim challenge in April to raise vital funds for key equipment.
The team will have 19 hours – the equivalent of an operational day – to swim an incredible 43 miles (1,376 lengths of a 50m swimming pool), which is the distance the Kennet and Avon Canal spans across Wiltshire Ambulance’s operational area, from Bath to Marlborough.
The University of Bath have kindly donated space at their Olympic-sized pool for the challenge, which will be held across two days on 12 April and 14 April, with 9.5 hours of swimming per day.
The team will be looking to raise £5,000 from the challenge to fund the purchase of three syringe drivers and two electronic medical tablets for its Rapid Response Vehicles (RRVs).
The specialist syringe drivers allow the critical care paramedics and doctors to deliver drugs to patients over an extended period of time and the electronic tablets would be used to help monitor drug administration.
Wiltshire Air Ambulance safety and ground operations manager Richard Miller said, “Last year we embarked on the Love Your Air Ambulance cycling challenge and also had aircrew run 24 miles in 24 hours across Wiltshire and Bath, all to raise funds for blood warmers and blood products.
“The whole team wanted to embark on a new challenge for 2022 and this time we’re going to be swimming the width of Bath and Wiltshire, spanning the 43 miles covered by the Kennet and Avon Canal from Bath to Froxfield near Marlborough.
“We’re aiming to complete the whole challenge in the space of 19 hours, the same number of hours our lifesaving service is operational each day in our helicopter and two RRVs.”
He added, “We’re very thankful to the University of Bath for hosting this challenge event for us, offering the team some of the best facilities around for what we know will be a very tough task!”
Wiltshire Air Ambulance’s pilots, paramedics, doctors and charity staff say they are grateful they will be joined in the challenge by charity ambassadors and paralympic swimmers Steph Millward and Suzanna Hext, who should help contribute a significant number of lengths!
You can support the Wiltshire Air Ambulance team by donating via a special Just Giving page here – https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/WAAVirtualCanalSwim – or by texting WAA to 70480 to donate £10.
