Fundraiser taking on dip a day to raise awareness of sewage pollution
A WILD swimmer is braving a dip a day in October to raise money and awareness about polluted waters across the UK.
Jen Roberts, who moved to Shetland three years ago, is taking on the challenge in aid of Surfers Against Sewage – a charity that aims to tackle the pollution of waterways up and down the country from raw sewage.
Roberts decided to take on the fundraiser after watching a documentary about the damage being done to rivers and seas across the UK.
“I felt angry that places that people loved to swim in were being destroyed,” she told Shetland News.
“There is raw sewage being pumped into seas and rivers, particularly around the south of England.
“I thought I might as well do something good for the community and for the charity as well.
“I wanted to support their campaign for cleaner water – people should always be able to enjoy the water.”
Roberts has been swimming in the outdoors for around a decade, and used to swim in the sea in Yorkshire before moving north to Shetland.
She said that since moving here she had been “really lucky to be able to go in the sea most days”.
And even immediately after moving to Shetland, Roberts experienced both the warmth of the locals and the iciness of its waters.
“We got to Shetland on a Saturday in November, and we were in the sea on the Sunday,” she said.
“Our neighbours go in the sea every Sunday in Nesbister and so they asked us to go with them. It was a really lovely welcome.”
She extolled the virtues of a morning swim, calling it a “lovely way to start the day”.
Roberts works at the Gilbert Bain Hospital and said that an evening swim can also be a nice way to decompress after a long shift.
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Her dip a day is already well underway, and despite the charity’s choice of October – which Roberts admits “is not the best month for it” – she said she had enjoyed the experience so far.
“The community is great up here – a lot of people down south call it wild swimming, but here it’s just swimming!
“We went swimming on New Year’s Day a few years ago and it was snowing – I’d never been swimming before when it was snowing.
“It was a lot warmer in the water in Yorkshire, the sea is much more rough and colder here.
“I think people are more tough up here, definitely. We used to go in our wetsuits but now we just go in our costumes.”
The running joke with swimmers she says is: “If you start to feel warm it’s time to get out, because that’s hypothermia speaking”.
Roberts said she tends to go to Bain’s Beach in Lerwick – a popular spot for wild swimmers – but if the tide is in she may revert to her little beach in Nesbister.
And though her Sunday swim a week previous was “horrible” in the wind and rain, she said she was aware of how privileged they were in Shetland to have constant access to clean water.
“We know that there are people that can’t go in the sea because of the amount of raw sewage, so I’m definitely aware of how lucky I am up here,” she said.
“The worst part is trying to get in the water. The feeling of getting out is amazing, it just cleanses you.
“The thing that motivates me is raising awareness, we want the government to see that this is really harmful.
“We want to see a clean water bill in place so that people can go in the sea safely.”
You can donate to her fundraiser here.
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