Courageous triathletes taking on fundraising swim in memory of their coach
A group of courageous triathletes are attempting to swim 12 miles in 24 hours to raise money for their coach – who sadly passed away from motor neurone disease (MND).
Alan Bagnall, who has been described as a 'complete gentleman', coached the Black Country Triathletes (BCT) for 19 years before he died from the disease earlier this year aged 75.
And now 52 of his former swimmers are taking on the difficult challenge in memory of him to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
The swimmers, who will be in groups of two, will begin the swim at midday on Wednesday, December 28 and swim throughout the night, to noon the following day, to complete their allocation of 12 miles each as they seek to raise £24,000.
Dave Hathaway, club secretary of the BCT, said: "Alan was a complete gentleman, that is the best way I can describe him.
"He was very easy-going, a relaxed guy, I had known him for 10 years from when I first joined the club.
"We are not a swimming club, we are a triathlon club, we have one or two good swimmers.
"Most are average swimmers, the reason it is a hard challenge is it won't be as hard for us as the latter stages of Alan's life.
"It will not be as bad as what he was going through.
"He was a swim coach for 40 years, but he said we were his favourite session because the adults listened to him.
"Adults swimming were so much more rewarding than children he said, as the youngsters do not want to be there, they are there because of their parents.
"But grown adults all try as hard as they can, and he was part of our club."
The BCT has more than 140 members, 91 are male members and 55 are female.
And they have received a powerful message of good luck from Kevin Sinfield, the former professional rugby league player, who is famous for going to extreme lengths to raise money for his teammate Rob Burrows, who is living with MND aged just 40.
Sinfield ran 40 miles for seven successive days raising more than £780,000 for the disease.
On a video-recorded message, Sinfield urged the swimmers to 'enjoy the challenge' and to take care of each other' while they are doing it.
So far, they have raised £5,164, and you can donate to their cause via the link: justgiving.com/fundraising/bct24
