This summer, Andrew Mercer is swimming the Channel as part of a relay team for Aspire, a national charity that provides practical help to people with Spinal Cord Injury, supporting them from injury to independence. 

This is Andrew’s second relay channel swim, although the last one was 38 years ago!  In 1981, he was a member of the Dover Life Guard team that swam the Channel, taking the mixed relay World record in a time of 7 hours and 17 minutes. The team still holds the record today.

Andrew says, “Following a health scare in 2017, I decided to get back into swimming and open water swimming in particular.  I don’t like cold water, so diving off the back of a boat especially into darkness fills me with dread.  However, meeting the rest of the Aspire Lions team has been great and the team has come together brilliantly.  We didn’t know each other before this, but the Aspire training weekends in Dover and completing the two hour qualifying swim as a team has bonded us together.  We have a team WhatsApp group that keeps us all motivated.  Our boat leader, Colin, has been excellent, so supportive throughout and he even buys the beers!  (We know we can do this.)

Andrew is a Partner at Trethowans solicitors which is located across the south coast, and even though he does not know anyone directly with a spinal cord injury, working for a large regional law firm that undertakes personal injury and clinical negligence work (which includes spinal injury claims) has made him aware of how important the support provided by Aspire is.

I’m  swimming for Aspire so that I can give back to a charity that helps people with spinal cord injuries improve their mobility and quality of life something which we all too often just take for granted. This is an immense challenge and one that I am proud to be doing for Aspire, as it is a truly amazing charity.

Sponsor Andrew 

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