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The 30 Bays In 30 Days swimming event raised over £20,000 for Les Bourgs Hospice in its 10th anniversary year. It has raised over a quarter-of-a-million pounds in 10 years.
The hugely popular fundraiser attracted 783 participating islanders in 2023 with all funds raised going towards the £1.6 million required each year to meet running costs.
The 30 Bays in 30 Days concept came from the hospice’s current Fundraising Administrator Liz Stonebridge:
“I wasn’t working here at the time but was visiting a close family member who was at Les Bourgs. That summer I had set myself a personal challenge to swim around as many bays in Guernsey as I could which quickly became addictive. I was really enjoying visiting different parts of the island I hadn’t seen for a while, and I found that sea swimming was hugely restorative and helped me at that time.
“My mum had been cared for at the hospice when I was 19 and I decided that I wanted to help raise them some money. I was aware of the successful 30/30 Cycle Challenge run by Ian Brown and wondered if I could do something similar. I nervously pitched it to Hospice Director Jo Boyd and from there it snowballed.”
Liz thought that if the inaugural event could attract 50 people, then that would be amazing. As it turned out it attracted over 500!
“I confess I was a little overwhelmed. In Guernsey I love that we have a real community and people are really positive and are prepared to embrace new ideas. The weather was great that first year and I was grateful to everybody that got involved.”
During the first Covid 19 lockdown in Guernsey the event attracted over 1500 swimmers. Liz was worried that the restrictions would impact on the number of participants, but she needn’t have worried.
“We are so lucky to have a huge number of beautiful beaches on our doorstep and so many people have said being involved reminded them of their childhood and gave them inspiration to keep going from the start of July through to the end of September.”
Les Bourgs also runs a 12 Bays of Christmas challenge in December and has shared the concept with Jersey Hospice and The National Trust of Jersey. Last year the hospice also helped to launch a smaller 5 bays in 5 days event in Alderney to raise money for Alderney Cancer Relief and the Alderney Wildlife Trust.
For more information please visit http://www.30bays.org
