Wednesday 17 August 2011

Swimmer Profile: Matt Newbury

My name is Matt, a 41-year-old Devonian living in Torquay on the delightful English Riviera. I've signed up to the Swim to Bestival event as it sound pretty cool - and the closest I have come to combining swimming with a festival before was at Glastonbury several year's ago, when the weather got all biblical on our asses and the seats inside the car we came in were under water!

I'm doing the swim with my sister Hayley, who I suspect has been doing quite a bit more training than I have, although now the event is getting so close, I have been jumping in the sea a bit more. Then after a bit of a splash around, I usually feel I deserve an ice cream or perhaps a little drink or three to warm myself up!

I do actually plan to do a series of island swims over the next couple of years and have done a few already. My biggest swim so far was an Escape from Alcatraz a couple of years ago, when my partner and I swam to the mainland! More recently I entered the annual round-the-island swim at Burgh Island, which was where Agatha Christie wrote And The There Were None and Evil Under The Sun. I though swimming to, from and around a few famous islands might even make a good book, if Speedo or Richard Branson happen to be reading this and fancy sponsoring me! Well some of these tropical islands are quite expensive to get to!

Talking of sponsorship, my sister Hayley and Me are doing this swim for Water Aid, which seems perfectly appropriate! WaterAid's mission is to overcome poverty by enabling the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education. For a gift of just £15 WaterAid can provide one person in Africa or Asia with a lasting supply of safe, clean water, sanitation and hygiene education. Surely this is the most basic of human rights.

if you can support us, please visit www.justgiving.com/swim-to-bestival

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