TWO teachers are already looking for their next challenge after helping to raise £45,000 by swimming the English Channel.
Nikki Saines and Alice Dooley, work colleagues at South Holland Post-16 Centre in Spalding, set off to swim to France on Saturday as part of a team of six raising cash for Diabetes UK.
After almost 17 gruelling hours, Nikki had the honour of being the swimmer to touch land at the other side – but said the swim had been a mentally tough challenge.
During the event the six swimmers took it in turns to do an hour in the water, with the rest following alongside in a small boat.
Nikki said: “It was a great team experience and we all bonded really well, but it was tough.
“It feels great to have done it and there is a massive sense of achievement, but now I feel a bit empty because we have worked towards this for so long.”
Nikki says one of the hardest parts of the swim was the sense of disorientation when swimming in the dark, with nothing to be seen but sea in all directions.
She said: “There was no concept of which direction you were supposed to be going in. You just had to be guided by the boat.
“We also had to cross the shipping lanes, which is quite frightening when you look up and there’s a P&O ferry in your face.
“But we did see some dolphins and on my last leg there was a shooting star, so we all made a wish – I think we all just wished that we would make it to the other side.”
Nikki and Alice decided to do the Channel swim months ago to raise cash for Diabetes UK after witnessing Alice’s sister’s struggle with Type 1 Diabetes.
Both are delighted with the amount of money the team raised – and more is still to be collected in.
But Nikki said: “I think I will have to do something else now because I need a new challenge.
“Alice is thinking of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, so I might end up doing that because she’s difficult to say ‘no’ to when she gets an idea in her head.”