Sussex NHS worker taking on charity swim
It's to raise money for The Ambulance Staff Charity
An NHS worker from Sussex has given herself just six months to swim an incredible 4,728 lengths of a swimming pool, one for each of her colleagues.
Sam Rhodes, from South East Coast Ambulance Service (SEACAMB) is also hoping to raise ÂŁ1 per length for The Ambulance Staff Charity (TASC), which offers mental and physical support to ambulance staff and their families.
Sam told Greatest Hits Radio: "I was a bit annoyed with myself, I didn't know they existed! They've been there the whole time I've worked for SEACAMB and I just don't think we're shouting about them enough. I know in the past year they've had quite a big increase in requests for support, but I'm very aware it's not something that's spoken about a lot".
She's put that increase in calls to the charity down to a very difficult 18 months for ambulance staff: "It's been really hard. Obviously nobody expect that this was the position we were going to be in. And we're still getting up and going to do our jobs as if it was our normal day to day work, and it's been hard".
If Sam hits her fundraising target of ÂŁ4,728 then that will be enough to fund:
- 79 mental health support sessions for ambulance staff
- 13 interventions for staff with more complex mental health issues like PTSD
- 93 physiotherapy sessions for Ambulance staff injured in the line of duty
- As per Sam's latest update on her Just Giving page she has already swam an impressive 1,250 lengths.
- Just 3,478 to go!
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