After 42 hours of battling strong tides, storms, cold, body cramps and jelly stings, former Sutton & Cheam player Mickey Helps was forced to give up his attempt at a double crossing of the English Channel just 1.5 miles from home. But what an achievement!
The 50-year-old, a member of Sutton’s all-conquering team of the late 1980s and early 1990s, undertook the marathon in memory of Sutton teammate and ex-Welsh international Mark Shepherd, whose death was reported on the BWPL website in January. Mickey was also raising funds for the British Heart Foundation.
Swimming the Channel – one way! - was the second of three challenges Mick had set himself this year. He had already completed the Gibraltar Straits swim. The Dardanelles Straits is next on the agenda.
As a veteran of Iron Man and triathlon events– not to mention Jersey’s round-the-island swim – “Metal Mickey”, as he’s known, decided that the one-way English Channel swim was only a start.
He completed the first crossing in just over 19 hours. But, in all, he was to cover a distance of 92 miles which, subject to official ratification, ranks as one of the world's longest and furthest recorded open water swims. Only complete exhaustion led his support team, which included current Sutton players Matt Holland and Greg Dodds, to haul Mickey out of the water agonisingly short of his goal.
To support Mickey’s fund-raising effort, go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/The3Swims
The 50-year-old, a member of Sutton’s all-conquering team of the late 1980s and early 1990s, undertook the marathon in memory of Sutton teammate and ex-Welsh international Mark Shepherd, whose death was reported on the BWPL website in January. Mickey was also raising funds for the British Heart Foundation.
Swimming the Channel – one way! - was the second of three challenges Mick had set himself this year. He had already completed the Gibraltar Straits swim. The Dardanelles Straits is next on the agenda.
As a veteran of Iron Man and triathlon events– not to mention Jersey’s round-the-island swim – “Metal Mickey”, as he’s known, decided that the one-way English Channel swim was only a start.
He completed the first crossing in just over 19 hours. But, in all, he was to cover a distance of 92 miles which, subject to official ratification, ranks as one of the world's longest and furthest recorded open water swims. Only complete exhaustion led his support team, which included current Sutton players Matt Holland and Greg Dodds, to haul Mickey out of the water agonisingly short of his goal.
To support Mickey’s fund-raising effort, go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/The3Swims
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