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12
Aug 2024
Pateley Bridge woman, 81, to swim the English Channel
A Nidderdale octogenarian is to swim the English Channel next month as part of a relay team.
If successful, 81-year-old Dot Wagstaff from Pateley Bridge will be one of the oldest women relay team members on record to have ever achieved the challenge.
She will be part of a team of six taking it in turns to swim legs of the 21-mile crossing between Dover and France. Dot is the oldest in the team by approximately 20 years.
The team is raising funds for Cosmic, a charity which supports neonatal and paediatric intensive care units at St Mary’s and Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, London.
Each team member is aiming to raise £2,000. So far Dot has raised £350.
The challenge will take place in September although the date and start time is yet to be announced due to unpredictable weather. It is expected to take around 18 hours to complete.
Dot has previously competed in the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in her 60s and represented Great Britain three times in the standard distance triathlon age group event in New Zealand, Canada and London.
Her last open water swimming challenge took place at Coniston Water in the Lake District before covid.
Dot told the Stray Ferret she has swum all her life and likes to challenge herself to keep fit.
She said:
When I was younger I did think about swimming the Channel but life got in the way and I didn’t think anymore about it. It came back on my radar last year when a friend persuaded me to join the relay team.
To compete in the event she had to pass a medical examination and an open water sea swimming test off Whitby last month.
Since being accepted on the team, she has upped her training to swim five times a week.
Five sessions a week
Four of these sessions are at Nidderdale Leisure and Wellness Centre in Pateley Bridge and one is an open water session at Ellerton Lake, near Catterick.
She said:
The preparation has been gruelling, the most worrying bit is acclimatising myself to colder temperatures. It was 14 degrees in the sea at Whitby and I hope the channel will be warmer.
I have been getting used to it by sitting in icy water in an outside tub for the last three months.
Dot Wagstaff
The team will be stationed on a boat and take it in turns to swim for an hour, then hand it over the next member and repeat that for another two legs of the crossing in unpredictable conditions.
Dot said:
It will be demanding, it is a bit scary knowing we will be swimming in the dark and there will be jellyfish and rough conditions.
The worst part is knowing that you have to do it even if you are seasick because you can’t let the other people in the team down.
I am not unaccustomed to swimming, but the Channel is more daunting. I like a challenge and thought, ‘why not give it a go.'
She explained that she enjoys swimming due to it being easier on her joints than other sports as she got older.
According to the Channel Swimming Association, the oldest member of a relay team was in his mid-70s, and the Guinness World Records lists that an 80-year-old relay team member, Robert Lloyd Evans, in a group called ‘One foot in the wave3’ became the oldest male relay team to make the crossing last year.
Dot said:
I never thought about my age when agreeing to it. I don’t think age plays in any part of it. I just like a challenge and don’t see why you should give that up when you get older
People think I’m barmy, but they are used to it and have been supportive.
She added that after the challenge she will have a well-deserved drink to celebrate and look at booking a holiday.
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