By Julie Waters
FROM Donaghadee to New Zealand, the Chunky Dunkers sea swimming group and their elite swimming friends have certainly made a fundraising splash by raising £10,000 for two local charities.
Members of the open water swimming group have presented £5,000 to each of their chosen charities – The Barn Animal Rescue, in Newtownards, and Shore Street Foodbank, in Donaghadee.
Martin Strain, the Chunky Dunkers founder, praised the generosity of these intrepid local sea swimmers who embarked on a host of fundraising events including ballots, raffles and sponsored swims throughout the past year.
The well known Donaghadee man explained donations were also received from a number of intrepid global swimmers, who set off from the picturesque coastal harbour town as they attempted the gruelling 21.4 mile North Channel challenge.
Mr Strain said the dunkers were thrilled to be able to combine their passion for sea swimming with helping others.
“We are delighted to have reached the £10,000 total and presented £5,000 to the Barn Animal Rescue and £5,000 to Shore Street Foodbank.
“We reached this total through a combination of lots of events throughout the year, from raffles and ballots within the group. We also get donations from swimmers from all over the world who come from the likes of Australia and New Zealand to do the North Channel swim and they make a contribution.
“Around 90% of the total comes from within the group; the Chunky Dunkers group are amazing, they are such generous people. Just before
Christmas a group of around 14 or 15 of them went into the town carol singing and raised £300.”
The Donaghadee swimmers also undertake a number of sponsored swims over the winter months, completing impressive distances of around 21 miles, the equivalent distance of the North Channel swim.
“We also do sponsored swims over the five months of winter, November, December, January, February and March. This year we are going to try and swim the distance of the English Channel between England and France,” explained Mr Strain.
“Most of our swimmers wouldn’t be big swimmers, we are called dunkers for a reason. So some people complete the swims in a relay team of six people.”
As well as supporting their local community, another of the highlights of the past year for the Chunky Dunkers is meeting the global sea swimmers who travel to Donaghadee to undertake the toughest of the Oceans Seven challenges.
The North Channel is notoriously known throughout the marathon swimming community as the most difficult of the Oceans Seven challenges due to the lion’s mane jellyfish and competing tides and currents.
It was a proud day for the Donaghadee swimming group when one of their own, marathon swimmer Holly Monson, from the Ards peninsula, became the 72nd woman to complete the challenge in a gruelling 14 hours, 11 minutes and 18 seconds, last year.
Said Mr Strain of the group’s global links: “One of the highlights of the year is getting to meet the North Channel swimmers who come from over all the world from mid June to the beginning of September.
“They come from everywhere and set up home in Donaghadee and Bangor, they will mix with us and have a cup of coffee with us. We are very lucky that we get to spend time with these absolute elite swimmers.”
