Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore

Mangalore, Apr 22: In a noteworthy humanitarian gesture, British couple Emma and David Williams successfully managed to complete between themselves, the swimming challenge to raise funds for the HIV positive children's centre namely 'Samvedanaa Children's Home' in the city here on Monday April 21, stated a press release here from England on Tuesday April 22.  

It may be recalled that the swimming challenge was supposed to have taken place on Sunday April 20, however it was postponed. It took place the next morning, as one of the participants Emma had a severe cold, stated the press release. The Bristol South Pool (west of England), where the event took place is very old, in fact dating from the Victorian period.

According to the release, the British couple arrived at the Bristol South Pool at the scheduled time 7.30 England time. Unfortunately they were told that the pool had been drained over the weekend for some unexplained reason and although subsequently it was once again full, it was unheated.

In UK, the temperature is only 7 degrees at this time of the year, which means it is pretty cold and chilly. But braving all these unfavorable conditions, the competition was undertaken and after 56 minutes Emma had done all she could with her severe cold. She had completed 3 kilometres while David had done 4 at that point and went on to do another 3 (total time swimming the 7 km was 1 hour, 58 minutes). Thus both participants are now in a position to claim the 10,000 sponsorship money they had set out to win between themselves. Volunteers present at the event kept the time for every 25 metre length covered by the swimmers.
 
Sponsors have now been called upon to pay their bid amounts and the total is expected to be calculated within two weeks and later presented to the children's home 'Samvedanaa' in the city. The major sponsor of the event is Williams Cheesman Software, a company owned by the swimmers themselves. Moreover, the event has been sponsored per kilometer by family and friends of the couple. The sum expected to be raised from this event is roughly about Rs 20,000, the release stated.