The boys of Cubitt House took to the lanes of the School swimming pool on Sunday 20 April to raise money for the charities Cancer Research and British Heart Foundation. They are aiming to collect several thousand pounds. Starting at 5am, they swam for 12 hours and covered a phenomenal distance between them – 300 km, or 186 miles, which is the equivalent of setting out from Cranleigh and reaching the outskirts of Paris.

 

This translates to 12,168 lengths of the pool, an average of 120 lengths per participant, itself a stunning feat; 3 kilometres or 1.87 miles each. There were some staggering achievements; the “100 club” had more members than could easily be written on the board, many came and swam more than 200 lengths, and 7 achieved more than 400 lengths over the course of the day. However, the ultimate accolade went to Jamie O’Neill and Ed Thomas who both managed to clock up an incredible 1,001 lengths each; indeed Jamie just couldn’t stop and went ploughing on to 1,120 lengths before climbing out of the pool. 1,120 lengths is exactly 28km or 17.4 miles which is just 3.5 miles short of swimming across the English Channel – a phenomenal achievement. Both these boys, especially, will be hoping to raise substantial sums of money for charity for their efforts and they have set up a website where contributions can be made. www.justgiving.co.uk/edthomas1