Local Girl Overcomes Her Fear of Swimming Pools to Complete the Swimathon for two Charities
Local girl Jessica Loach, pictured below with her certificate, has just turned 10 years and has taken part in a swimathon to raise money for Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie. She did her swim at the local pool at the South Charnwood Leisure Centre.
Jess has autism, ADHD and Tourette’s syndrome along with quite severe asthma. She loves swimming and being in water but has a genuine fear of swimming pools and her asthma is made worse with physical activity. When she saw the poster advertising the swimathon she decided she wanted to sign up and face her fears to take part. She wanted to help raise money to help ‘poorly people’ and she hoped that taking part would earn her the swimming badge. She is also a member of Syston Cub Scouts and going to Cubs is the best part of her week.
Her family signed her up for the challenge to swim 400m. Before this she had swam maybe 10m in one go so this was a sizeable challenge for her. It could be done over a few visits to the pool.
On Monday 29th April she decided she was ready, so we headed off to the pool. It took a few minutes to get her comfortable to get in the water and even longer to get her to the deep end for her to see that there weren’t any sharks in there or any of the 100 other things she was worrying about. We made our way back down to the shallow end and she was ready to go.
This wonderful and determined little lady swam her butt off and refused to stop. She did the entire 400m in the one visit in 45 minutes. During this 45 minutes of swimming she had to get out to take her inhaler and still got straight back in and carried on. Halfway though one of the lengths on the way to the deep end she had a tic attack. If you don’t know what that is, it’s part of the Tourette’s syndrome.
A lot of people hear ‘Tourette’s’ and think of people who can’t help swearing.
But it’s so much more than that. Jessie’s body can jerk around without her having any control and it can happen anywhere. When she’s eating, when she’s going down stairs, when she’s trying to sleep and when she’s trying to swim. So mid length she sank whilst thrashing and I had to scoop her up and hold her out of the water whilst her body betrayed her and she thrashed all over the place. Tic attacks are knackering at the best of times, but once it was over she INSISTED on carrying on.
Some of the last few lengths she did on her back, barely kicking because she was so tired, but she kept on moving and refused to give up.
Jessica’s Mum, Megan said: “I am so insanely proud of her and the way she faces everyday life which she finds so difficult. But to put herself out there and do something so tough for her, to help others made me heart want to explode.
If you would like to support this amazing little girl and help her raise as much money as possible for the two charities, you can by visiting:
I’m fundraising for Cancer Research UK Marie Curie at Swimathon 2024 justgiving.com
The family have already helped her reach the £150 target she set and every time someone new donates she bounces around the house with so much happiness that a choice she made is helping other people.
We along with her family would love for her to see her target absolutely smashed!
Well Done Jess!