At the end of August, I plunged off a boat in Istanbul alongside 3,000 other swimmers and set off to swim from one continent to another across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The 6.5km journey down the Bosphorus Strait between Europe and Asia is one of the most famous open water swimming challenges and draws competitors from all over the world. I was there to raise money for The Listening Place, where I’ve been a Listening Volunteer for just over four years.
Although I’ve been a keen swimmer ever since my teens, the risks and rigours of this event still came as a bit of a shock. I’d done most of my training in pools and lakes and it was tough acclimatising to open water. Fortunately, I’d also done a lot of yoga, meditation and breathwork in my day job as a professional yoga coach, which I think helped me manage physically and emotionally. The conditions on the day were harsh — most years swimmers are helped along by the strong surface currents in the middle of the strait, but the currents weren’t in our favour this year. At one point in the race I realised that I couldn’t see a single other swimmer around me and the frantic beeping of the safety boat also suggested to me that I’d strayed off course! The end of the race is also quite technically challenging as you need to make sure you only turn towards the European shore after you’ve passed Galatasaray Islet, otherwise you can be carried past the finish by the current and are then disqualified. But after an hour and 22 minutes, I finally made it.
I’m proud to have raised a total of over £2,400 for The Listening Place, enough to support eight people with suicidal thoughts for as long as they need. During my time volunteering with TLP, first in Kings Cross and then at the Hammersmith site, I’ve seen how many people really don’t have anyone at all to support them. I’m grateful to have had a comparatively easy life and to be able to give back a tiny bit, both through my sessions as a Listening Volunteer and through fundraising for a charity whose work I wholeheartedly believe in.
