A 17-year old Roedean pupil is training to swim solo to France – and it will be her third cross-Channel crossing.
Roedean A level student Clara Burton-Dowsett swam the Channel as part of a school relay team aged just 14 back in 2022 and has another relay crossing planned next month (June) with friends met through the channel swimming community.
But in early July she will attempt the crossing solo for the first time, swimming 21 miles.
She will be raising money for the charity Taylor Made Dreams, which enables children with life-limiting illness and their families to enjoy trips and days out together and supports therapeutic services.
Her choice of charity has special meaning to her after she struggled with many serious health issues as a young child, her parents even being told there was nothing more could be done for her by hospital staff at one point. Years later, she is now in good health.
Clara said: “As soon as I heard about this charity, it struck a chord with me and I decided I wanted to support it.”
She added: “I really enjoyed crossing the Channel the first time when we did it as a school team. I loved the challenge and really pushing myself. But I felt like it wasn’t enough for me to do it as a relay so I decided to tackle it alone. I know what it takes but I have a really great crew to spur me on so I am excited to do it.”
She has been given a ten-day window at the start of July to take on the swim and until then will train in the very same pool, Nuffield Health in Crawley, where she learnt to swim as a toddler.
On the swim, she will be accompanied by two pilots who know the Channel like the back of their hands and two fellow swimmers who will act as crew, their jobs being to ensure Clara’s safety, navigate, feed her, monitor her condition and ensure the strict rules of cross channel swimming are adhered to.
She added: “I have always loved swimming and I could swim before I could walk. When I joined Roedean at 11, I was lucky enough that one of our teachers Dr Hobbs started up the sea swimming club and came up with the idea of a team crossing the Channel and my enthusiasm for it all has just gone from there.”
On Clara’s website, claraschannelswim.co.uk, set up by the charity to support the swim, Mum Kirstie explained: “Though Clara continues to manage some medical issues, she is aware that they are not life-limiting. Visits to specialist hospitals we have had to make in the past have humbled us, reminding us of the courage of others who face even greater challenges.
“Clara has always been passionate about sports, especially netball and swimming. When she joined Roedean in 2019, she fell in love with the sea. This newfound passion led her to begin training for a channel relay and in the summer of 2022 Clara and five other Roedean girls swam in rotation from Dover to France, each completing one-hour shifts through the night across the busiest shipping lane in the world. They reached France after 13 hours and 13 minutes. The experience left Clara inspired, and she immediately set her sights on a new goal – swimming the English Channel solo!”
Categories: Roedean School School News
