Surrey swimmer powering across the Channel for Diabetes UK

Emma House, from Salfords, a project accountant at UK Power Networks’ Crawley office, has trebled the difficulty factor during her second year in Diabetes UK’s Swim22 challenge, to get fit and support friends and colleagues living with diabetes.

After completing Swim22 last year, she now aims to ‘swim, walk and cycle’ 44-miles, the equivalent of England to France and back, raising over £300 for Diabetes UK, including £100 match funding from UK Power Networks.

By the end of June she needs to complete 2,832 lengths of her local pool, 20 hours on an exercise bike at her local gym and 22 hours walking with her dogs Forrest and Willow.

Emma upped the ante when fundraising got off to a slow start. She said: “I wasn’t doing well with sponsorship, so I decided to increase the challenge by bringing swimming, walking and cycling together into one big challenge.

“I added walking and cycling to make it as hard as possible. It is a challenge and I do get tired, but there’s no point doing it if it’s easy. I’ll have to add skateboarding next year!”

Emma is also an unaffiliated dressage competitor, who rides four times a week, but she says 44-miles of dressage on her pony Daisy is definitely not on the cards.

Jill Steaton, Diabetes UK head of South East Coast and London, said: “Thank you once again to Emma for everything she is doing to raise much-needed funds for Diabetes UK. We’ll be cheering her on. Not to mention Forrest and Willow!

“The money raised will help fund ground-breaking research, care services and campaigns that can change the lives of people living with diabetes.”

In Surrey alone 52,484 people are diagnosed with diabetes, 5.8% of the population. Nationally, 4.8 million people are living with diabetes in the UK, and a further 12 million are at risk of type 2 diabetes. The money raised by Swim22 will help Diabetes UK fund the development of life-changing treatments.

Emma praises Swim22 for bringing the diabetes community together in a positive and inclusive way. She invites anyone able to support her ‘mad’ challenge to do so via her fundraising page here: https://swim22.diabetes.org.uk/fundraising/emma560#share-page.