A Story of Success
As I write this today the 25th Anniversary of the 24 Hour Mega Swim concluded yesterday! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that a swim I started in February 2001 would still be running 25 years later!
The 24 Hour Mega Swim started as a one off charity event run by myself with the help of 4 amazing friends Deidre, Jacqui, Judy and Margo who were always there to help run the event. But also friends and colleagues who put together teams each year to swim for 24 hours and raise funds for the ‘Gold For Gold Scholarships’ handed out by MS Plus each year to people living with MS to follow a dream.
What started at one pool spread to other pools and not just in Victoria, also NSW, SA, ACT, QLD and TAS, a lot of them in small town and country pools with most of the pool time donated by local councils. It was a lot of work but boy when you have a great product it is amazing to see how many people will volunteer to run it! I don’t have enough words of thanks to all of the volunteers in the 20 years that I ran the Fitzroy Pool event. I had decided to call it quits on the 20th Anniversary and thankfully MS Plus took over. Now here we are at the 25th anniversary of the Fitzroy Pool inaugural 24 Hour Mega Swim.
There were lots of spin-offs to other pools and sports – Squash, Racket Ball and Badminton. In the last 25 years we have had:
• 156 Mega Swims and other sports in Victoria
• 39 Mega Swims in New South Wales
• 16 Mega Swims in Canberra
• 5 Mega Swims in South Australia
• 3 Mega Swims in Queensland
• 15 Mega Swims in Tasmania
Team from the 2006 24 Hour Mega Swim at the Fitzroy Pool
All of these events in the 20 years that I was running the Fitzroy swim raised $11,205,114.85! I unfortunately don’t know the total amount in the 25 years but how phenomenal is that? Unfortunately events have been cut in the last year which is really sad. Those small towns and country events were really good and got the local community supporting those living with MS in their local area. The only ones being run now are the big ones Fitzroy, Sydney, Canberra and Hobart.
So THANK YOU to all of you who have taken part in one of the events! You have helped change the lives of people living with MS in one small way…by giving them the chance to follow a dream!
And I should know, I was the recipient of one of those scholarships in 2005 which enable me to compete for the first time ever as a Para athlete in swimming at the World Masters Games and look where that took me! So it’s true:
IT’S NEVER TOO LATE!