Tuesday, 10 April 2012
A STAFF nurse from Cardiff
Bethan Jones, who works at The pair swam 1,000 lengths at Maindy Pool, raising more than £1,500 for mental health charity Mind Cymru.
Twenty-nine-year-old Bethan said: “We did the swim in five hours and fifty minutes.
“We kept a pretty good pace. Up until the first 500 lengths it was fine and then between there and 750 we both just hit the wall. I was ready to give up, but then we realised that we could do it – but it was very hard work.
“Mum felt her arms were like lead and when I was swimming I could feel my arms shaking. It was really physically hard – it was mind over matter.
“But as soon as we finished there was such a rush, I felt I could do it again. The sense of achievement was just amazing.”
Bethan had originally wanted to swim the English Channel but switched her attentions to the pool, covering more than half the distance from Dover to Calais
She was joined by mum Wendy, who did the 3 Peaks Challenge in 2010, and the pair spent seven months getting ready – swimming around five times a week and going on runs to build stamina.
Bethan, who is thinking about tackling a marathon next, said: “It was great to have mum helping to push me on when we were training. We helped each other. It was a great thing to do with my mum. It was a really, really great day and it helped a really good cause.“We all know someone with mental health issues and Mind Cymru is just a really, really great charity. They offer support for the sufferer and their friends and family and provide such great services.”
Becky Wilmoth, one of the UHB’s mental health directorate managers, said: “We are lucky here at Cardiff
“Bethan is a great example of that desire to help and go that extra mile, or sixteen in this case, to help others. We are all very proud of what she and her mum achieved.”
