00:00Now not many people are able to swim the English Channel let alone do it twice
00:04but I'm here in Heron Bay today where Paul Parrish lives and you've done this
00:08twice and I mean what made you decide to do that? Well in 2014 I did swim the
00:14English Channel as part of something called the Arch to Arc which is this
00:17insane triathlon where you run from Marble Arch down to Dover then you swim
00:22the English Channel and then you cycle to the Arc de Triomphe and it was
00:26wonderful that I'd done it but I wore a wetsuit and official Channel rules means
00:31that if you have any aid at all as in a wetsuit it doesn't count as an official
00:36crossing now at the time I didn't care I was just ecstatic to have done what I'd
00:40done but over the years it kind of began to niggle at me that I'd never done it
00:44properly so I'm 60 this year and I just thought I've got to stop this thing
00:49eating away at me I'm gonna give it another go and just do it in a swimming
00:53costume a hat and goggles and try and get an official Channel swim and so I mean
01:01you had your partner and the crew alongside you in the boat but you did
01:04have a bit of extra help can you tell me about that? I did have some extra help
01:07yeah I am I was struggling it's like 11 hours 11 and a half hours into swim you're
01:13really starting to feel it it's really biting and I looked up and I could see
01:17everybody on the boat suddenly get all with their cameras out and I kind of thought
01:21what's that and I looked up and as I looked up this dolphin just broke the
01:25water in front of me you know right close up to me and then I could see them all
01:30below me they'd come back and swam below me and they were just there and
01:35apparently according to everybody on the boat they've been there they've been
01:38loads of them all playing around all on my side of the boat I kind of think they
01:42were just there because it gave me such a lift I felt so amazed that they'd done
01:47it and apparently my speed picked up everything and you know you said that
01:52since then people have been sending a lot of information about dolphins saying
01:55that they're quite empathetic do you feel like there was a reason why they
01:57joined you yeah I think they knew I think they knew that I was struggling I just
02:03think that that kind of animal there's so many stories about them really giving
02:06people a lift getting in between I know one swimmer who said that they were
02:11around him when there were some sharks around that they've got this kind of way
02:14of empathizing with us giving us a hand there's so many stories about it I kind
02:19of like to think that might have been the case with my little pool pod of
02:23dolphins and no less you did this all for charity so you had this extra help but
02:28you have been helping people yourself can you tell us a bit about that and and
02:31why you chose this charity yeah well I'm actually the fundraising marketing
02:34director of a charity called aspire and we're there to help people who've
02:37sustained a spinal cord injury there's no cure for it but we help them go
02:41from injury to independence over the years we've been really good at
02:45fundraising through open water swimming I think we're unique in the charity world
02:49in terms of the kind of program that we've got so it's been a big part of my
02:52life in terms of my professional life but also personally you know it's helped
02:57you know I've got very involved in it myself and I thought was a really good
03:01way to kind of raise money for the charity say you know I don't just talk the
03:05talk I can try and walk the walk and I'm also retiring from the charity so in March and I
03:11thought it'd be kind of a really lovely farewell thing for me and to try and
03:15raise a load of money before I go excellent and how much have you raised so
03:20far so at the moment it's just over 14,000 pounds in fact about 60 and a
03:25half with gift aid so yeah so it's a good chunk of money so I'm really really I
03:29mean people have been so kind so lovely I think they just want to see me go I
03:34think something like that but they have been so lovely so got a lot of people to
03:38think so you've managed to raise all this money you've managed to swim with
03:41dolphins does that encourage you to do it again maybe for your 70th no never
03:45again that's it that's me and channel swimming over but it's been a it's been
03:50an absolute blast and it's been a real adventure excellent well if you're
03:54planning on swimming with with dolphins this year on your holiday you might not
03:58need to travel as far as you think Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV in Herne Bay
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