Lancashire man takes on marathon swim after friend’s brain tumour battle
Warwick Ashburner, from Preston, will swim 26 miles in Coniston Water – to raise funds and awareness of brain tumours
By taking on the gruelling 26 mile swim, which he calls a “Moist Marathon”, Warwick hopes to raise funds, and vital awareness for The Brain Tumour Charity, after a close friend, Annie Mann, was diagnosed with a brain tumour earlier this year. Annie learned in May that she has a Glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of the disease in adults.
Warwick’s Coniston Water swim will be continuous, requiring him to cover 1.1 miles on the hour, every hour, for 24 hours. Warwick said:
“When Annie was diagnosed, I had a general awareness of brain tumours, but not in any great detail. I hadn’t realised how quickly you can go from having no symptoms to being told you’ve got months left to live. That shocked me.
“I felt that as I couldn’t really do anything to help directly, the least I could do was raise some awareness and funds for a meaningful charity. After following the exploits of the adventurer Ross Edgley, last year I set myself the goal of pushing my physical limits at least once every year. I felt I could achieve both of these targets with this mammoth swim.
“I hadn’t really swum since I was in primary school, until a friend and owner of a local gym encouraged me to try a sprint triathlon, which I loved. I stepped up the challenge in 2022 to an extreme iron-distance triathlon in Snowdonia. The idea for this swim was simply to go bigger than last year!”
Aware that his swim will push him to his absolute limits, Warwick has been training extremely hard, including gym sessions and long open water swims. Warwick said:
“For the past 18 months I’ve been swimming at least 4 times a week in either the pool or open water. The furthest I’ve swum in one session so far is 15km during training. For my first sprint triathlon 2 years ago I did some swimming, but even 200m tired me out!
“I’ve been swimming around 20-30km per week in the pool for the past 6 months and have recently started getting in longer open water swims at the weekend. I’m also lucky enough to have a great home gym setup, so I can get plenty of strength and conditioning in. It’s all going really well and I’m feeling confident that my fitness and endurance are up to the challenge!
“Having done a few test swims in the same area where I’ll be doing the actual swim, my biggest concern for the swim is getting in and out of the lake without breaking an ankle on the slippery and uneven rocks that line the shore!
“The bit I’m most looking forward to is the laps when people get in and swim with me. Several friends have said they will jump in for a few laps which will be a massive boost to my mood and energy levels.”
Warwick hopes to raise as much as possible for The Brain Tumour Charity with his epic swim, and has set himself a target of £4,220, to match the 42.2km he will tackle in the water. His fundraising has already exceeded £1,500.
https://www.justgiving.com/page/the-moist-marathon-tbtc
Warwick said:
“If I commit to something, I will always see it through, regardless of how much it hurts or how tired I am.
“There has been a massive outpouring of support from Annie’s family and friends, so the pressure is on me to finish!
“As happened in Annie’s case, brain tumours can seemingly come out of nowhere, and there’s currently nothing that can be done to prevent or stop it. Any of us could be happily living our lives, unaware that we have months to live. Any contribution we can make to find a way to stop this from happening, is money and time well spent.”
Evangeline Wragg, Community Fundraiser for the Brain Tumour Charity in Scotland, said:
“We are blown away by the effort Warwick is making by taking on this epic swim to raise funds and awareness of brain tumours.
“Taking on a marathon distance in open water, is just incredible.
“Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of the under 40s and, unlike other cancers, survival rates have not improved over the last 40 years.
“We are leading the way in changing this and truly fighting brain tumours on all fronts through our work.
“It’s through the efforts of people like Warwick that we can change these shocking statistics in the future and bring hope to the thousands of people who are diagnosed with a brain tumour every year.”
Warwick’s swim will take place on Friday July 14th, 2023, starting at approximately 10am. It is expected to finish at 10am the following day.
The Brain Tumour Charity is the UK’s largest dedicated brain tumour charity, committed to fighting brain tumours on all fronts.
They fund pioneering research to increase survival and improve treatment options as well as raising awareness of the symptoms and effects of brain tumours to bring about earlier diagnosis.
The Charity also provides support for everyone affected so that they can live as full a life as possible, with the best quality of life.
Find out more: https://www.thebraintumourcharity.org/
