Swimming the Mencap Mile

Hi my name is Ellen Goodey. I have been working at Mencap now for two years. My role is marketing and communications learning disability consultant - project support assistant. That’s a bit of a mouthful but practice makes perfect.

This year I decided I was going to do a swim to raise money for Mencap which is called the Mencap Mile. It’s in a big open lake, but a mile is about 63 lengths in a pool, or so my line manager tells me.

I’ve done this sort off thing before so it should be easy but I do also think it is a challenge because it’s a big swim but what’s life without a challenge?

I go swimming once a week on Fridays as part of my training for the swim. I do 20 lengths a week and I’ve done 40 lengths so far since I signed up for the swim. I have my 30th birthday coming up soon, so me and my friends are going to do 30 lengths that week. I also have a fitness trainer once a week when I go to the gym with my parents and I’m eating healthily to be ready.

When I go swimming once a week I have two other people swimming with me but I am not swimming with them for the Mencap Mile.

For the Mencap Mile I am swimming with two of my Mencap colleagues. One is my current line manager, Thomas Empson - he is a bit of a slave driver! One week we saw a poster in the work lift about the swim and we said let’s do it. The other colleague is Katy Palmer who used to be my line manager who left Mencap, but she is coming back to do the swim with us. Another lady called Sarah is joining the team too - she is Katy’s best friend. I’ll meet her only on the day we swim.

We hope to raise sponsorship from friends, family and work colleges at Mencap, their best friends, brothers and sisters, anyone happy to donate money for a good cause and a big challenge. As a group we would like to raise £1,000 for Mencap and awareness for disabled people. You can see our fundraising page if you would like to make a donation online!

If I could give any advice to anyone else wanting a challenge - I would say if you can swim more than 30 lengths then I say take the challenge like me because I’m a charity worker and I’m taking part.

I also blog on the Raising Your Game website!