Local woman ready to swim English Channel for charity

Local woman Stacey Egan will be swimming the English Channel in a relay team of six people later this summer for Swim Tayka, an English charity that teaches children in developing countries how to swim.

Egan, from Ferbane, who has worked in Athlone Regional Sports Centre and trains in Lough Ree, says: "Training is going well and I'm looking forward to taking on the challenge and raising funds for Swim Tayka.

"I'm taking on this swim with five others for a few reasons; it's a personal goal of mine and also I want to raise awareness and funds for children in poorer countries as I believe every child should have access to learn to swim and be safe around water."

Ms Egan's relay team 'SwimPeru' will take part in the swim between July 29 and August 3 depending on the weather.

She is aiming to raise €1500 for Swim Tayka.

Stacey swam competitively for many years until her late teens at national level and made the Connacht squad. Ms Egan has also worked as a swimming instructor in the Athlone Regional Sports Centre for the past six years.

“I have been training over a year for this swim. During the winter, I was in the pool four to five times a week, swimming up to 18km a week and one to two gym sessions a week, to build strength. From April I started going back to the lake, Lough Ree, Coosan, where I do most of my open water training."

"She had to complete a qualifying swim for the relay in Coosan. "I had to swim for an hour and a half (5km) come out of the water for an hour and get back in and swim for an hour (3.3km). This had to be completed with the same rules as the Channel swim, one hat, two pair of goggles and one layer swimsuit."

“Up until about three weeks ago I had been doing five to six pool sessions up to 23km a week and maybe two or two dips in the lake. I am now just swimming in open water. Pool swimming would not be beneficial at this stage as my body has to acclimatize to being exposed to cold temperatures for long periods of time.”

Stacey continued: “I have an amazing coach, David Warby, he is a duty manager in Athlone Regional Sports Center, I have known David for many years before I started working in ARSC and he has coached people for open water swimming events and Ironmans. A couple of years ago he coached Fergal Madden, who completed a solo English Channel swim.”

The Curraghdown, Ferbane, native feels that open water swimming is a much different sport to pool swimming and highlighted the precautions she takes when swimming.

“It is a dangerous sport and I take safety measures every time I get in, such as texting my mum to let her know I’m getting in, how long I expect to be in and I text her when I get out. I wear a tow float, which is bright orange so that I can be seen on the water, which also has my name, number and emergency contact written on it.”

Each person in the relay swim team will swim one hour slots and swap with their team members. They have estimated that the swim will take 12 to 18 hours to complete from Dover to France.

The English Channel swim is seen as the Mount Everest of all swims as more people have climbed Mount Everest than have swum the English Channel.

Stacey is the daughter of Mary Egan from Ballinasloe and the late John Egan from Ferbane. She also recently completed an Arts degree in Irish and Music from Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.