Woman completes 93-mile swim challenge for charity

Shan Barcroft said she "really enjoyed" her challenge

A 57-year-old woman has completed a 93-mile swimming challenge to raise funds for charity.

Shân Barcroft from Peterborough set herself the challenge and completed it over three months to raise nearly £1,300 for Nene Park Trust, where she works as a fundraising officer.

Ms Barcroft, who is also a qualified nurse, said the swimming distance represented the 930 hectares of green space and blue space that made up Ferry Meadows and Nene Park.

She said she wanted to highlight the issues facing the environment and the need to protect green spaces, as well as promote the work Nene Park does.

Ms Barcroft said she swam a mile a day, mainly in the city's art deco lido, as well as enjoying open water swimming at Ferry Meadows as part of her challenge.

The mum-of-two said: "I was going to complete my swim last weekend by swimming between the old pier and the new pier in Brighton, but unfortunately there had been a big sewage spill into the sea and there was no swimming allowed, which probably illustrates even more the need to protect our blue spaces.

"But I've really enjoyed it. I'm 57, I took it quite slowly but made lots of friends, met lots of people who want to support green spaces and blue spaces in Peterborough and had fun and it clearly has really good mental health benefits."

Shan Barcroft visited the Splash museum in London after her sons compared her to Pamela Anderson from Baywatch during her swim at the sea

Ms Barcroft said she hoped to inspire more people to fundraise for the trust that maintains the park and runs activities and programmes, including the Peterborough Celebrates festival.

"Ferry Meadows is a natural flood plain, so almost every year now it floods, and actually the consequences of that are that we have to repair the damage afterwards and things like that," she said.

She said she had amazing support from her colleagues and family and hoped to do more campaigns in the future.

"My kids said I looked like Pamela Anderson from Baywatch running into the sea. I hope she [Anderson] sees this and gives me a shout out", Ms Barcroft said.

Senior fundraising officer Lucy Thornton-Reid, from Nene Park Trust, said: "Not only has it been inspiring to see Shân take on this challenge, but the funds raised help towards making sure greenspace in Peterborough is here for everyone to enjoy and benefit from, forever – which is pretty incredible."