Via her employer Aspect Capital, Jo Swainson found out about Pump Aid and its work giving communities in sub-Saharan Africa access to clean water and safe sanitation. Being already a long distance runner for many years, Jo found Pump Aid the right charity to support for a new endurance challenge. Jo decided on long-distance open water swimming and selected the cross-continental swim across the Bosphorus as her first sporting event in aid of Pump Aid. Starting her training seriously in April in the Tooting Bec Lido, a 100 yard (92 metres) long pool, Jo prepared for the event on the 15th of July.

Due to bad weather the two open water swimming events Jo had enrolled in for further training were cancelled. Well trained and fit, but not yet prepared in open water, Jo arrived in Istanbul in July to cross the Bosphorus in a swim organised by the National Olympic Committee of Turkey. Although the organisers had said that there were no jellyfish to be expected the truth was different: there were a lot of small jellyfish in the fast flowing current. Undeterred though, Jo set out from Asia to the coast on the European side, on a 45 degree angle, to deal with the strong current. As the field of swimmers was spread out widely and the current formidable, it was not easy to find the shortest route and having slightly overshot the target, after one hour Jo had to change course and swim the last minutes against the current to reach the target sand banks on the European side. After an exhausting swim of one hour and 12 minutes Jo had made it!

With this great sporting effort and the matched giving scheme of her employer Jo managed to raise a stunning £4,264 pounds for Pump Aid! Pump Aid is extremely grateful to Jo (second from the right in the pictures), all her generous supporters and Aspect Capital for this fantastic donation. Through initiatives like Jo’s, Pump Aid is able to help thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa with access to clean water and safe sanitation. Pump Aid is looking forward to reporting back to Jo on how the money she raised has been used. We will do this through our next impact report.

Well done Jo!

A warm thank you from Pump Aid.