{"id":262696,"date":"2026-01-02T02:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/262696\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:50:17","slug":"swimmers-brave-cold-for-charity-sea-swim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/262696\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimmers brave cold for charity sea swim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Craddock,Jersey communities reporterand<\/p>\n<p>Emma-Jayne Blackman,Jersey<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765806968_986_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/a726bbd0-e70d-11f0-b3f3-41b296f9846e.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"BBC Man wearing shoe costume on beach holding bucket collecting money for Jersey Hospice Care\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>BBC<\/p>\n<p>Karl Fitzpatrick said he was keen for the event to become an annual tradition in Jersey<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Dozens of people braved the cold water on New Year&#8217;s Day for a charity sea swim. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The event at Greve de Leq in aid of Jersey Hospice Care was organised by Karl Fitzpatrick as part of his fundraising efforts for the London Marathon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Despite earlier rain, about 75 swimmers took to the sea, watched by a similar number of supporters on the beach, and about \u00a3400 was raised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">In a safety briefing before the swim, Mr Fitzpatrick said participants should only stay in briefly and to make sure they had warm clothes handy.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765806968_986_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/08bf5280-e70e-11f0-b3f3-41b296f9846e.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Woman wearing wooly hat and wrapped in towel on a beach \" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Angela Betts said the water was &#8220;absolutely freezing&#8221; but worth it<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Among those taking part in the Jersey was Angela Betts from St Peter, who said the water was &#8220;absolutely freezing&#8221; but worth it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">She said she had been persuaded to join in by her children and praised the hospice as &#8220;a great organisation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mr Fitzpatrick said the event was fun for all the family. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Even if people didn&#8217;t swim, they could still come down, walk the dog, have a laugh and put some money in the bucket,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765806968_986_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/553b8d90-e70e-11f0-b3f3-41b296f9846e.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Michael Ahier is wearing a hat and towel while standing on the beach.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Michael Ahier said the swim was personal for him after his grandfather spent his final days <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Michael Ahier, from Jersey, said the swim was personal for him after his grandfather spent his final days at the hospice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;It&#8217;s worth it,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mr Fitzpatrick said plans were already being discussed to repeat the event in 2027 and he thanked everyone who took part or donated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;It does so much good,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Craddock,Jersey communities reporterand Emma-Jayne Blackman,Jersey BBC Karl Fitzpatrick said he was keen for the event to become&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-262696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115823235956042827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}