The new Wonder Woman movie is already being hyped as the blockbuster of 2017.
But who cares when a real world wonder woman walks – and swims – amongst us?
With the help of family and friends, Penny Bower, a keen local swimmer, put in the hard yards at West Kirby Concourse in service of a great cause.
Collectively Team Bower swam an incredible 2982 lengths. That’s 46 miles and just over twice the width of the English Channel.
The aim was to raise awareness of the UK’s fifth biggest cancer killer – pancreatic cancer.
The event took place last weekend at West Kirby Concourse with 42 other swimmers who joined Penny in her challenge, helping to raise over £3,500 for national charity, Pancreatic Cancer Action.
Penny was motivated by the sad loss of her father, Mike Bower. He died in 2015 just four weeks after diagnosis. His widow, Sue, also played a big part in making the weekend a triumph by holding a cake, tombola and bric-a-brac sale that raised over £600.
Penny says: “Our dad was a popular guy and well known in the local area as a retired farmer. During the event a member of the public approached us, recognising the picture of our dad by the side of the pool, and asked if she could become involved and swam over 100 lengths in one go!
“It all started from one of my last conversations with dad before he died. He would always take an interest in how many lengths I’d swum since taking it up as a pastime and always encouraged me as my stamina increased and I did more lengths.
“I’d already signed up to do a skydive for a charity supported by work shortly after he died and I promised I would do a sponsored swim for him. I’m so pleased to have completed this and never imagined it to be on this grand scale, initially thinking to do it on my own, but after some thought I decided to make it into a fun family event for my family and friends.”
Penny is hugely grateful to the staff at West Kirby Concourse for supporting her. She and her fellow swimmers were able to use the pool out of opening hours and on both days lanes were sectioned off.
Pancreatic Cancer Action is committed to working towards earlier diagnosis of the disease so that surgery, currently the only cure, is made available to the sufferer. Ultimately this will lead to improving survival rates.
If you want to know more about pancreatic cancer please click or tap here to visit Pancreatic Cancer Action
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