Wednesday, 29th May 2019
The ‘Wavelengths Girls’, Activo members Dawn Mulgrew (44) and Lisa Ryan (47), started swimming daily at Pendle Wavelengths in Nelson 12 months ago and they signed up to this year's Swim 22 for Diabetes UK, which challenges participants to swim the length of the channel (22 miles) over three months.
Dawn and Lisa swam at Pendle Wavelengths most days and would manage 30 lengths of the pool in an hour when they first started a year ago. Since the challenge, Dawn and Lisa have continued swimming daily and now average 80 lengths per hour!
During the last year, Dawn has lost an impressive four and a half stones in weight and Lisa, who suffers with Fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, has seen a dramatic improvement to her health and fitness levels thanks to the stamina daily swimming has created.
So far Dawn and Lisa have swam 240 miles between them since the beginning of their challenge, putting them in a remarkable fourth place on the UK Swim 22 leader board (with Lisa 3rd on the individual leader board) out of thousands of swimmers across the UK.
The two friends often swim twice a day and have discovered new pools around Lancashire, thanks to the Active Network of leisure facilities (one of our Activo member benefits). Lisa, who works for BPRCUS, even carries a spare costume and towel in the boot of her car in case she can fit in another swim on her way home from work!
The girls said about swimming: “It’s not about being the fastest or the best, it’s about doing it and enjoying it, making new friends and improving your life.”
