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Black Country open air swimming club sees membership explosion

BBC 81-year-old great gran Vivien Cashmore, from HalesowenBBC
The club's oldest swimmer is 81-year-old Vivien Cashmore

An open air swimming club at a reservoir has seen membership treble since 2019.

Netherton Open Water Swimming Club, in the Black Country, began six years ago with about 30 regulars.

That jumped from 367 in 2019, to 619 in 2020 and there are now more than 900 swimmers each week.

The oldest member, 81-year-old Vivien Cashmore, said it was "really refreshing and better than swimming at baths".

Mel Aucott (left) and Julie McNally (right)
Mel Aucott (left) and Julie McNally (right) said they liked to feel "at one with nature"

The former nursing auxiliary has swum in open water since she was 66 and added "because you've got the open water to swim, you don't have to keep going backwards and forwards".

Julie McNally was taught in the sea by her grandfather and has swum with NHS colleague Mel Aucott for six years.

She said: "I gave up for some years and then decided, having had breast cancer that I wanted to get back into that as a route into healing."

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Open water swimming

  • Open water swimming takes place anywhere that is not a swimming pool
  • It is also referred to as wild swimming or outdoor swimming
  • The number of people outdoor swimming is growing with 7.5 million people now taking part
  • Around 2.1 million prefer to swim in open water including lakes, lochs, rivers and seas
  • More than 3.1 million people choose to swim in outdoor pools
  • Swimming both in open water and outdoor pools is the preference of a further 2.25 million participants

Source - Swim England

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Ms McNally said it was "a good way of relaxing and it puts you in your happy place".

She said a lot of members did it because "you just feel you're at one with nature".

Mohammed Sheikh, aged 52, from Wolverhampton. He’s a chartered accountant and has 6 children and 2 grandchildren. Started open water swimming 12 months ago.
Mohammad Sheikh is one of the newer swimmers at the club

Mohammad Sheikh, a 52-year-old chartered accountant from Wolverhampton, started open water swimming at the reservoir 12 months ago.

He said: "The first 10 seconds are always painful but once you've regulated it's absolutely fine."

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