Laura's team of channel Swimmers

Last week, Cardiff University student, Laura Beth-Pilkington, combined her two favourite sports – swimming and horse riding – when completing The Tri-Service Channel Swim in aid of The Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund.

She was one of a six strong team from the Wales University Territorial Army competing against a Navy, Army and RAF teams. Laura is studying Medicine at Cardiff and her team mates were all students from universities in Wales.

Explaining her choice of charity, Laura said:  “As well as swimming, I enjoy riding and had been having show-jumping lessons with the late Ian Olding from Sandbach who tragically died in an eventing fall earlier this year.  I had grown up with him  through Pony Club and competing at local events and when I found out about his accident it was devastating and so real.  I wanted to do something, in Ian’s memory, to help other riders.”
 
The Swim took place on 21st of July and each of the six team members had to swim for an hour at a time, rotating. Laura was the first swimmer of her team and herself swam three times to contribute to a finishing time of 13 hours and 7 minutes.  For Laura, it was the culmination of 12 months’ training and preparation which had included a 5km race in Lake Bala and open water training sessions in the sea.
“We were swimming into strong winds for the last part and it felt like I was on a treadmill sprinting but getting nowhere.  The Officials said that a lot of teams would have turned around, the weather was so atrocious.”
So far, Laura and her team have raised over £500 for The Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund but anyone inspired to donate more can email her at lbpilkington@hotmail.com.