BBC Radio WM swimmers help to raise £100k

Staff at BBC Radio WM have helped raise more than £100,000 with a 24-hour swimming challenge for Children in Need.

The five on the team swam 24 miles across 24 hours, at Sandwell Aquatics Centre, which was used for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, from Thursday morning.

All BBC local radio stations across the UK had a target of trying to swim 24 miles each, to add up to the 1,000-mile total.

One of the swimmers on "Team Wet Midlands", breakfast show presenter Sarah Julian, thanked listeners for giving money and admitted that later in the challenge the team was "flagging a little bit".

She said: "Thank you so much for your donations and perhaps your well wishes and messages even more so.

"They kept us going, particularly.... the back end of the day on Thursday."

The challenge had started at 09:00 GMT, with the team that featured fellow BBC Radio WM presenters Trish Adudu and Kath Stanczyszyn, BBC Midlands Today sports presenter Dan Pallett and radio producer Matt Mitchell.

Their efforts contributed to the overall total across the local radio stations.

Adudu said: "My beloved mum died suddenly last year from cancer and before she left us she said to me, 'Trish, don't panic about anything, always just go for it, enjoy life'. And that's what's got me through."

Stanczyszyn said she herself had had "a really bad bout of mental illness" in the past, adding: "I didn't know what to do with myself to feel better.

"But I started swimming regularly and it helped me no end and doing this has really brought that back."

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