Swimmers are diving into a 1.5k open sea swim challenge to raise money to buy an incubator.

The swim at Blackpool Sands on Saturday, September 22, has been organised by Liz Riley to raise £5,000 for an open incubator for the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) at Torbay Hospital.

Of the 30 swimmers, a few have used SCBU with newborn babies. All the participants are local to Dartmouth and most are new to sea swimming, making it even more of a challenge.

The swimmers will be going from one end of Blackpool Sands to the other and back again to reach the 1.5k challenge.

Liz said: “It was initially something I wanted to do to raise money for SCBU and try something new, then lots of my friends volunteered to do it with me and it has turned into an event.

“Personally, having spent a total of five weeks of my life in SCBU with two of our babies I can genuinely say they would not be here without the talent and resources of the amazing staff and specialist facilities at SCBU Torbay Hospital.

“Our eldest son Reuben was born seven weeks premature at 33 weeks and our youngest son Lucas was born four weeks premature at 36 weeks.

“Thanks to specialist doctors and nurses on SCBU, our babies had access to incubators, breathing monitors, ventilators, feeding tubes and light therapy for jaundice and we now have two very healthy boys aged 11 and 6.

“We wanted to give something back to SCBU to say a great big thank you for the amazing work they do.”

Liz approached Tricoean in Churchstow who kindly negotiated a good rate with Zone 3 to supply triathlon wetsuits for the swimmers plus free hats and goggles.

Sir Geoffrey Newman kindly agreed to the swimmers using Blackpool Sands and the Venus Cafe is providing complimentary refreshments for the swimmers.

“We’re grateful to local businesses who have sponsored us namely Ribeye Boats of Dartmouth and The Royal Castle Hotel” added Liz. To support the swimmers please go to their fundraising page.