St John's school Aspire to swim the Channel!

Staff and pupils at Bollington St John's CofE Primary School have swum the 22 miles distance of the English Channel to raise money for Aspire – one of the UK’s leading spinal injury charities.

Elen Watson, 30, a senior teacher at the school, and Sue Roberts, 43, a teaching assistant of 10 years, chose to swim the 22 miles over 12 weeks raising money that will benefit people like Sue's family member, Robin Womack, a Paralympic shot putter whose spinal cord injury lead to partial paralysis.

Sue's local health centre, Bollington Health & Leisure, helped her fulfil the fundraising challenge by offering discount swimming sessions as well as practical help from the centre's school swimming coordinator, Lucy Gallagher, to organise 25 Bollington St John’s pupils as they swam the final 300 lengths (3.6 miles) of the 1770 required to complete the Aspire Channel Swim, on Friday 26th November 2010.

Seven year old, Ava Reid, a year 3 pupil at the school who has Down's Syndrome, managed to swim an impressive 12 lengths without buoyancy aids - how brilliant is that! The highest recorded distance for an individual pupil on the day stood at 18 lengths.

Nine year old Joseph Jepson said he'd kept going during the sponsored swim by thinking: "If I was in the ocean I'd have to get on with it and use all my strength!"

"The children did me proud," said Sue Roberts.

To date Elen, Sue, and the St John's Primary School pupils have raised £300 for Aspire! Well done to all of them!