Paul's in the swim to help charity
A YEAR ago former Brighouse man Paul Greenhalgh started swimming seriously to aid his recuperation from a running injury – now he is waiting to get the all-clear to attempt a Channel crossing.
"I suppose you could say one thing led to another," said Paul. "I discovered I liked swimming and the next thing I knew I was agreeing to the Channel swim."
Paul, who grew up in Brighouse and went to St Andrew's Junior School and Hipperholme Grammar School, is now playing a waiting game for perfect weather conditions to enable the five-man relay swim to go ahead.
"It's very nerve-wracking. I have to ring up every day to check on the weather – we've been waiting since August 26 for conditions to be good enough," said 44-year-old Paul, who is a veteran marathon runner. "It's difficult because you have to be in a constant state of readiness."
Among the problems the swimmers expect to encounter on their swim across the world's biggest shipping lane are extreme cold, strong tides, choppy seas and jellyfish. "We're not allowed to wear wet suits so the cold water is a real problem," said Paul who has been training with eye-watering swims off the British coast in early spring.
He is swimming to raise money for the Ichthyosis Support Group which helps people suffering from the rare genetic skin condition. Ichthyosis causes dry and cracked skin and excruciating pain.
Paul, who now lives in Bagshot, Surrey, hopes to raise 2,000 with his swim. "A Channel swimmer covers himself with grease once in a lifetime and it's a bit of fun. But for an ichthyosis sufferer, covering every inch of skin with grease is a daily chore. It is an appalling condition but few people understand it and little research is being done into it. The daughter of a friend of mine suffers from it and I have seen the pain and distress it causes. Compared to what she goes through every day a swim in cold water is nothing.
"We are not a pro-swim team, just five mates who decided to have a go because we think we can make a small difference.
"We have been training hard since October 2008 and we introduced exceptionally cold sea swims off the coast of Cornwall into our training schedule in April this year."
The team's Channel bid has been hampered by the remnants of Hurricane Bill which have been moving slowly across Britain, bringing strong winds and rain.
"Normally late August would be an ideal time for this sort of thing but the Channel has been unusually stormy this summer," said Paul. "Every day I speak to the pilot who is going to be supporting us – and every day so far the word has come back that we can't go yet. It's very frustrating."
Paul and the four other relay swimmers will be in the water for an hour at a time before rotating. They will enter the water at Shakespeare Beach near Dover and emerge at Calais between 15 and 20 hours and 35 kilometres later.
"We enter the water in the early hours of the morning in pitch blackness and that is going to be a daunting experience. "Traditionally many attempts to swim the Channel fail but we have been training hard and will keep each other's spirits up," said Paul, who has run 44 marathons all over the UK and South Africa, where he lived for a couple of years.
His wife Suzanne is supporting his bid but his two young sons, Sam, aged four, and one-year-old Sean are too young to understand what he is attempting.
"I used to run at school and I've always been interested in keeping fit. I work hard at my job and it's an antidote to all that stress. But this is the most ambitious thing I've tried," said Paul who left Brighouse to study at Nottingham Trent University but still has many friends and family in the area.
“Traditionally many attempts to swim the Channel fail but we have been training hard and will keep each other’s spirits up,” said Paul, who has run 44 marathons all over the UK and South Africa, where he lived for a couple of years.
His wife Suzanne is supporting his bid but his two young sons, Sam, aged four, and one-year-old Sean are too young to understand what he is attempting.
“I used to run at school and I’ve always been interested in keeping fit. I work hard at my job and it’s an antidote to all that stress. But this is the most ambitious thing I’ve tried,” said Paul who left Brighouse to study at Nottingham Trent University but still has many friends and family in the area.
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Weather for Halifax
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
