A Swindon dog called Poppy will once again swim a mile for a life-saving charity.
The Labrador Retriever and enthusiastic swimmer will take to the water alongside many two-legged contestants at the Henley Swim Festival on Sunday, 10 July.
She will be raising funds for SwimTakya, a charity which which runs programmes around the world teaching children to swim, to help combat the annual statistic of 360,000 global deaths from drowning.
Poppy belongs to the charity’s founder, Bryan Avery, who will also be taking part in the mile-long swim, and according to Bryan she hopes to beat her personal best of just over 30 minutes.
“This is the third time Poppy has taken part and we’re grateful to the organisers of Henley Swim Festival for allowing her to do so,” said Bryan.
“We’ll join the last wave of the event, and I am sure she will really enjoy it. She loves the fuss people make of her and it is a great way of raising awareness of SwimTayka too.”
Five-year-old Poppy will swim behind Bryan, wearing her special dog float coat. Bryan himself is a keen open water swimmer, who swims regularly at Lake 32 on Cotswold Water Park, and is often accompanied by Poppy.
Bryan said: “She’s done really well the last two years, and I am sure she will again. We’ve been training hard and are all set. The fact that we are raising money for SwimTayka gives us even more incentive.”
Poppy can be sponsored via https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/PoppySwimsaMile. More information about about SwimTayka can be found at https://swimtayka.org/
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