Swimming against the Tide
ROD WEBB talks to Jacky Butler about her daughter’s bid to swim the channel
In 2020, HIP carried an article about a young Brighton director who was making a film about the first British woman to swim the channel, a film that was partly shot in Hastings. Four years later, I went to see Vindication Swim at the Odeon cinema. It not only gave fascinating insights into what motivates such feats of endurance, but also the barriers that faced women back in the 1920s.
One important aspect the film highlighted was the importance of getting the right ‘weather window’: many hopes have been dashed when weather conditions have changed unexpectedly.
Now another woman, this time from Hastings, is waiting for the right conditions to do her first crossing. Her weather window is 27 August to 2 September. “All I can do is try my best whilst training and hope that the rest aligns,” writes Bethany Butler in the introduction to her Just Giving crowdfunder. And she’s so focused on that window of opportunity that, according to her mother, Jacky, she’s currently “incommunicado” while she does her final training.
Bethany doesn’t have a serious swimming background, but she joined a masters swimming club (clubs for over 18s) eight years ago after being diagnosed with MS. “Wild swimming gave her a sense of freedom and adventure,” says Jacky. She started volunteering at Ashburnham, where her sister worked, and used to swim in the lake there.
The MS was discovered after major eye problems led to a diagnosis of optic neuritis, a symptom of MS. Fortunately Bethany is able to live symptom-free which she puts down to her healthy lifestyle choices. Her mother told us how she is reluctant to go too far down the medication route and that she’s “really careful with her diet”.
Talking to Jackie about the dangers of channel swimming, she said Bethany’s only real concern was “mother nature getting in the way of her swim”. She also told us that her daughter is “fearless”; for example, she went out sea swimming last week at 3.30am – in the pitch dark.
A typical day of preparation involves three hours of swimming every day at the local Bannatyne’s club and long-distance sea swimming at the weekend: eight hours Saturday and six hours Sunday followed by eight and three-hour sessions the following week. She has a land-based trainer who helps her overcome any injuries, and a swimming coach who helps develop her technique in order not to injure herself in the first place – as well as “telling her to ease off when necessary,” says Jacky.
Bethany’s father loves swimming, and apparently had dreams of going to the US as a lifeguard when he was young. Now he’s the one taking her to Dover at weekends to support her practice swims. But, of course, there are lots of other people behind the scenes: friends who’ve helped to raise money, others keeping her company in kayaks as she swims and an informal sea-swimming group calling themselves ‘The Swimming Pod’.
Jacky says her daughter is “a great believer in hope”. So, a last word from Bethany on her motivation:
“I can only compare it to a magnet pulling me in – it’s something that I knew I had to try. And at this moment in time, I am fortunate enough to be able to focus my all (and when I say that – that is no exaggeration) into the training that’s required, it really does involve every ounce of my being. So here goes as I make my attempt to swim across the great British Channel – WOOP WOOP!”
Bethany has almost raised enough money for the event itself, which includes the boat, the pilot’s fees and other sundries. Everything she raises beyond that will be donated to the MS society. To donate, go to justgiving.com/crowdfunding/bethany-butler-swim-the-channel
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