Bishop Fleming swim the Channel

On 27 September a group of five colleagues from Bishop Fleming swam the English Channel in a team relay, crossing some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world in aid of two charities; Level Water and Prostate Cancer UK. They have raised over £7,500.

Calling themselves ‘Fish at Fleming’, the team consisted of Alison Dale, Andrew Yearsley, Nick Foley, May Argyle and Richard Willimott, all of whom are colleagues at west country accountancy firm Bishop Fleming.

Supported by pilot boat the ‘Viking Princess’ and with a small support crew, the team swam in one-hour rotations throughout the night, finishing on the French coast at Wissant beach after 13 hours and 32 minutes.

Team member Andrew Yearsley, Innovation Director at Bishop Fleming, commented:

“The night we were due to swim the tides were extremely strong. Due to poor weather conditions earlier in the month, we ended up swimming on a spring tide, even though we were offered the chance to defer our swim to the following year. We took our inspiration from Captain Webb, the first person to ever complete the swim, who said: ‘nothing great is easy’ and we decided to go for it.”

Team member Alison Dale, Senior Learning and Development Manager at Bishop Fleming said: “We are thrilled that all our hard work and planning over the last two years has paid off. The support we have had from our friends, family and colleagues has been overwhelming and as we approached the French coast we were receiving literally hundreds of messages, tweets and texts of support.”

Level Water provides swimming lessons for children across the country who have disabilities. Prostate Cancer UK was chosen by the team because prostate cancer affects so many families, including friends and colleagues within the firm.

Bishop Fleming covered the financial cost of the support boat, which meant the team could invest all their effort and energy into fundraising for the charities, and it also means that every penny they raise will go to the good causes.

The firm, which delivers accounting, tax, corporate restructuring and advisory services to businesses, academies and charities and private wealth advice to individuals, are committed to encouraging and enabling its people to get involved in fundraising and charity work, regarding it as an important part of their commitment to corporate social responsibility.

If you would like to donate to the Fish at Fleming causes you can visit their JustGiving page here https://www.justgiving.com/teams/fish-at-fleming.