Former Royal Marine Commando, Jay Goss is set to swim 21 miles from Northern Ireland to Scotland on Tuesday.
Called the ‘Everest of Swims’, The North Channel swim is considered the most difficult of the ‘Ocean Seven’ long distance swims; feared for its cold waters, jelly fish and strong currents, and is anticipated to take about 16 hours across the Irish Sea.
Mr Goss is hoping to raise up to £100,000 for charity Safer LBG, which supports, empowers and provides shelter to children and adults who have and are experiencing domestic abuse, and to date he has received more than £21,000 in pledges.
“When I speak to the women who have inspired me to do this, who’ve lived through horrors most of us can’t imagine; they all speak of hope. And that hope is provided by charities like Safer LBG. I’m incredibly proud to be supporting them – a local Guernsey
charity. I hope all of the donations raised make a positive impact on victims’ lives,” Mr Goss said.
With an eight-day window, opening on 1 July, Mr Goss and his support team will assess weather conditions to decide which day he begins his swim.
Naomi Wright, CEO at Safer LBG, was in awe of Mr Goss for this challenge.
“We are incredibly grateful to Jay for choosing to support Safer through this extraordinary challenge. From the moment we met him, it was clear he was deeply passionate about making a difference in the lives of domestic abuse survivors.
“Jay spent time meeting with the team here at Safer to truly understand the issues that our clients face and all the work we are doing to support those affected by domestic abuse – he really is a Safer Champion The funds raised will help us continue our vital work supporting adults and children affected by domestic abuse in the bailiwick. We’ll be cheering Jay on every stroke of the way.”
Mr Goss has completed several daunting athletic challenges in recent years including being the 7th person in the world to complete the Arch to Arc, a solo continuous event including running 90 miles from London to Dover, swimming the English Channel and cycling 190 miles to Paris.
Saying he considers this upcoming swim to be his greatest challenge yet. He’s been training for the past two years in air temperatures of minus 13 centigrade and has been stung and scarred by jellyfish along the way.
He has also revealed he has had to put 20kg of ‘blubber’ weight on to protect himself against the real risk of hypothermia and successfully completed a 6-hour qualification swim in 12 degrees which involving 8,763 strokes of ‘front crawl’.
