Local MP swims incredible 7km to raise £7k for Stocksbridge Community Leisure Centre

Marie Tidball, local Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, has swum 7km, the distance from Penistone to Stocksbridge, to raise £7k for a fully accessible changing room at Stocksbridge Community Leisure Centre.

Marie swam 7km (or 4.5 miles), which is 280 lengths of the pool and is the distance between Penistone and Stocksbridge – two of the main towns in Marie’s constituency. The local MP completed the 7km swim in 3 hours 50 minutes, well ahead of her target of 4 hours 30 minutes.

Marie is trying to raise £7,000 to contribute to 20% towards the approximate total cost of £35,000 for funding the conversion work needed to transform a room at the Centre into a fully accessible changing room.

The fundraiser is open until the end of the year and donations can be made via the Crowdfunder website at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/swim-penistone-to-stocksbridge

The community-run Stocksbridge Community Leisure Centre serves as a hub for people living in Stocksbridge and in neighbouring areas in the Upper Don valley, with facilities ranging from a swimming pool and a fully equipped gym to a café and meeting rooms.

Most of the facilities at the leisure centre are accessible for disabled people, including a hoist at the Small Pool for wheelchair users. One key improvement that the leisure centre would like to make is to have a fully accessible changing room near to the poolside. This would open up use of the centre’s pool to more groups within the local community and surrounding area.

Following the swim Marie Tidball MP said:

“Stocksbridge Leisure Centre is a special place to me. I learnt to swim at the baths in the Leisure Centre overlooking our Stocksbridge valley as a child, so it’s quite emotional for me to say I’ve now completed a 7km sponsored swim as our MP. It’s a privilege to be able to give back to the place that gave me so much by helping to fundraise to make the swimming pool more accessible for local disabled people, so that everyone can benefit from this incredible community resource.“Thank you so much to everyone cheering me on today, including Graham Silverwood, the Stocksbridge Leisure Centre staff, my family and friends, and everyone who’s donated so far. You kept me going!“It was a huge challenge and I’d love to reach our £7k target. We’re at just over £5,000 and the fundraiser is still open until the end of the year, so I’d really appreciate any donations to close the gap!”