Girl with down syndrome to swim one mile in Falmouth for the RNLI
Rebecca Smith will take part in the challenge this weekend
Last updated 14th Jul 2023
Update 14/07: Due to the weather forecast for the weekend, Becky's swim has been postponed until Tuesday (18 July). She will also now be swimming from Swanpool Beach to Gylly Beach.
A woman with down syndrome from Cornwall, who'd never swam long distance in the sea before, has been training to swim one mile for charity this weekend.
Rebecca Smith has chosen a huge sea swim as her next challenge, to raise money for the RNLI.
The mile swim will start at Gylly beach in Falmouth, across towards Castle Beach, Castle and back - and has already raised more than £1000.
Julie, Becky's Mum, said: "My Daughter Rebecca Smith loves a challenge and over the years as raised money for a variety of charities, in different ways.
"Her newest challenge and biggest yet is swimming a mile in open water, the sea, raising money for the RNLI.
"She has always loved swimming, but up until may this year had never swam in the sea. This is an absolute challenge for Becky as she happens to have Downs Syndrome. Training has been super hard but she is so determined and loving it.
"She as already raised over a £1,300 and hoping to raise much more."
In previous challenges, Becky has taken part in a 5km run and being in a display jet.
She told us the training for the swim has been fun: "First time I got in there, took a big breath and carried on doing it.
"I'm really excited to actually be doing this challenge."
She's been training with Gylly Wellbeing Swimmers, a community group set up in 2019 to help people feel better, mentally and physically, by swimming in the sea mindfully, safely, and connecting with others, as well as improving their swimming technique.
Paul Hills, who'll be swimming alongside Becky, said: "Becky came to us through the Gylly Wellbeing Swimmers group, it's a lovely community group and basically we try and do things for free.
"Our goal is to help people who are afraid of the sea, or scared, or think they can't swim, anything like that, we welcome them along and try and give them a bit of help for formal or informal sessions.
"We trust eachother to be safe, I'm not worried, even when we went out in quite big waves. We've practiced floating, even if Becky was to get into trouble, she knows what to do."
You can find Becky's JustGiving page here.