Organisers of the Sark Jersey Challenge 2020 were thrilled to confirm £12,000.00 was fundraised for our official chosen charity Jersey Alzheimers Association. 

Read the press release here

Find out what happened on the day and read Swim Organiser Simon O’Donoghue Sark Jersey Challenge blog here

Swimmers complete the inaugural Sark Jersey Challenge! 

On Saturday (15 August 2020), local swimmers of all ages and abilities took on the inaugural Sark Jersey Challenge kindly sponsored by TEAM and Dickinson Gleeson. Swimmers completed the endurance challenge as part of a competitive relay race or solo to complete the total distance of 14 miles from Blanchard Buoy, which is located a little offshore to the East of Sark to Jersey’s Greve De Lecq Bay.

In total, eleven relay teams of 5-6 swimmers took on the challenge, where team members took it turns to rotate in the water every hour. Each team had their own boat and skipper (a key member of the teams), (Insert piece on tides and navigation as an important part of challenge) Swimmers stamina and skill were tested in the exciting race as all teams hoped to be crowned the winner of the inaugural event. The Keg Society Relay Team took the winning title with a fast finish time of 5 hours, 32 minutes and 55 seconds, followed closely by the Beached Whales with a finishing time of 5 hours, 45 minutes and 10 seconds. There was also one solo swimmer, Greg Woods who completed the full distance and finished with an impressive time of 7 hours, 6 minutes and 55 seconds. The full list of results can be viewed at www.sarkjerseychallenge.com/results

The Sark Jersey Challenge was set up by Simon O’Donoghue, an experienced long distance swimmer, who wanted to put on a welcoming endurance swim race for locals with the aim to fundraise valuable funds for the charity Jersey Alzhemiers Association (JAA) which was previously an arm of the UK Alzheimer’s Society. JAA exists to provide advice and support to anybody who is affected by dementia in whatever way. Jersey has approximately 1600 people living with dementia and approx. 400 people access the charities support sessions for people with dementia, their family and carers each month. In fact, since 2012 JAA have experienced an increase of over 235% in demand for our services and support whether that be in attending activities such as Musical Memories or Arts Exploration, attending 1 to 1 counselling sessions, group support meetings for carers or going to awareness and education sessions.  Dementia certainly doesn’t just affect older people and JAA are working hard to provide support to the growing number of younger people diagnosed with the condition.  

Organisers are pleased to confirm approx £12,000.00 from the 2020 event was fundraised for Jersey Alzheimer’s Association.