A YOUNG swimmer has been raising money for charity.

Ollie Cameron, 11, has completed a 5k swimathon at the Aquadrome outside Basingstoke; the swimathon took place on Saturday, May 7 at 3pm.

Prior to the swimathon, the longest distance Oli had swum was 1.5k.

Ollie trained for several weeks leading up to the swimathon, training every weekend since January to participate in the event; Ollie’s mum, Kat, estimated that he swam 9K every weekend, and that he had practised for 26 hours in March alone to prepare.

Ollie completed the swimathon with a time of 1 hour and 48 minutes, beating his personal best of 2 hours and 6 minutes by 18 minutes.

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According to Kat, Ollie was “shocked” to have set a new personal best; she explained: “It was him and two other young girls doing the 5k, one was 14 and the other was 10, but the two girls were ‘blue sink swimmers’, so they swim 6 days a week, morning and evening.

“And he was literally 6 lengths behind the 10-year-old who does it 6 days a week.

“And even their dads were saying that he’d done so well to keep up with them.”

Ollie’s family attended the event to cheer him on, with Kat saying she was unbelievable proud.

She was also happy with the support the participants received from Aquadrome staff, saying: “The staff at the Aquadrome were brilliant!

“There were five staff members at the end cheering all the children on.”

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Alongside his training to prepare for the swimathon, Ollie also worked to raise money for both Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie; at time of writing, Ollie has raised over £310 for charity, with a goal of raising £500 for the two charities.

Swimathon 2022 is the latest swimathon event held by The Swimathon Foundation, a charity that encourages members of the public to take part in swimming and to raise money for charity; the Foundation’s currently partnered charities are Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie.

Cancer Research UK is one of the world’s leading cancer charities, dedicated to saving lives through funding research to help prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.

Marie Curie provides expert care, guidance and support for people living with any terminal illness, and their families

Ollie’s fundraising page is still open; you can donate to the fundraiser at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/crazy-ollie2011?utm_source=Sharethis&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=crazy-ollie2011&utm_campaign=pfp-email&utm_term=f2c98d5417044d72938088f8fdf95332.

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