Nairn swimmer prepares for charity Channel relay

Highland News & Media

Ashleigh Bulcraig (43) from Nairn is preparing to swim the length of the Channel with other swimmers in a fundraising relay for spinal injury charity Aspire.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04 So I'm Ashley.

00:06 I'm a pelvic health physio in my professional life.

00:11 But at home, I'm a mom of three that are 13, 12, and 9.

00:18 And I've always swam since a young age competitively.

00:23 And I've set myself a challenge to swim across the channel

00:27 in a really for a charity called Aspire.

00:30 It's 22 miles.

00:32 So you start at Dover, and you swim across to France.

00:36 There's six of us in the team.

00:38 And we're all given a number from one to six.

00:42 And we swim for an hour at a time until we get to France.

00:49 The charity Aspire is a spinal injuries charity.

00:54 And we kind of rehab people from when

00:56 they've had their injury right up to kind of--

01:00 so it's a really worthwhile charity.

01:03 And they've been doing this swim for the last 10, 20 years.

01:06 So they're kind of really--

01:07 they know what they're doing.

01:08 Amazing.

01:09 How did you get to know the charity in general

01:11 and the fundraising?

01:12 So I've been doing open water swimming

01:15 for the last five, six years.

01:18 And they have an outdoor society magazine.

01:20 And in the magazine, it says, do you

01:22 want to swim the channel in a relay?

01:24 And it's for charity.

01:25 It's really special to me because I'm a physio.

01:27 And I used to do neurological rehab.

01:29 So to do something for spinal injuries,

01:30 but also at the same time do something

01:32 that's really challenging, worthwhile for my children

01:36 to see me do something special is kind of the driver.

01:40 And to keep that and keep doing these things as I get older.

01:44 So I've had the months to come.

01:46 Yeah.

01:46 Also, I would say this time of year, because it's January,

01:49 it's just getting in the pool, working on technique,

01:52 just endurance, just getting used to kind of doing that.

01:55 And in the winter, we're then--

01:56 like in the summer, as it gets warmer,

01:58 getting into the sea.

02:00 But part of the charity, we have three training weekends

02:03 down in Dover.

02:05 And everybody that's doing this boat trip goes down to Dover.

02:09 And you train.

02:10 And you get to practice on the boat.

02:12 And you kind of get a feel of meeting your teams,

02:14 a bit of camaraderie.

02:16 We're getting hoodies made up with our things

02:19 so that we can--

02:20 because it's quite hard because obviously I'm up here.

02:22 And the other ones down in England

02:23 will be training together maybe at times.

02:26 But I've definitely come up to spotlights.

02:30 Yeah, so Eileen, and you're going

02:32 to start doing some fun dreams eating things.

02:34 So can you tell me a bit more about the Skipping Horses

02:36 squad?

02:36 Yeah.

02:37 So I have a quiz at the Royal British Legion

02:40 in Nairn on the 3rd of February, 7th of 30.

02:45 So it's teams of four, 20 pounds ahead.

02:48 And it's just really a fun quiz, just like with raffles.

02:51 Yeah, just to start raising money.

02:54 I've got an afternoon tea booked in Fintorn.

02:58 And yeah, just lots of little events,

03:01 wine raffles and kind of lucky squares,

03:03 just to kind of-- and a Just Giving page as well,

03:06 which is obviously kind of my main base to kind of work

03:09 out for.

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