Pictures: Paul swims Shannon in aid of North West STOP
Paul Little getting ready to start the next leg of his swim at Roosky.
Local man Paul Little is in the midst of a personal challenge while also raising money for charity by swimming 230 kms of the Shannon, which he embarked on last Sunday.
Paul who is from Cavetown, just outside Croghan, decided to swim Ireland’s longest river in aid of North West STOP, a cause which he strongly admires and is a valuable service to people in the north west in providing counselling for suicide prevention.
Just over two years ago Paul came up with the plan to undertake this massive fundraiser having been an avid fitness fan, an experienced tri-athlete and perhaps also prompted by the fact that he and his wife Hazel lived on a boat at Tara Marina for five years.
Prior to Sunday the 32-year-old father of five month old Conan had been busy training for the last 15 months but the past 12 weeks saw him ramp up his programme swimming an average of 20 kms per day and on occasion increasing that to 26 kms. He had been training in open water and swam all though the winter months in preparation for the Shannon swim.
The challenge is not for the faint hearted as Paul is swimming an average of 30kms a day after starting from the Bridge in Dowra and making his way down to Limerick in the company of a support crew.
To date he has made his way from Dowra to Battlebridge and from there to Roosky.
Today, Tuesday sees him continue from Roosky to Lanesborough; he will then swim from Lanesborough to Athlone; Athlone to Banagher; Banagher to Kilgarvan Quay; Kilgarvan Quay to Killaloe and from Killaloe to his final destination at Curragower Boat Club in Limerick City.
Paul is part of the Lough Key Swim Club, Lough Tri Club and Carrick-on-Shannon Rowing Club. In fact he had his wife originally met at the rowing club and later climbed Kilimanjaro for their honeymoon.
Paul hopes to be celebrating his latest achievement this Sunday, August 17th in Limerick.
Anyone wishing to support him can do so by logging onto https://northweststop.enthuse.com/pf/shannonswim North West STOP is a community-based, voluntary charity founded in 2004 by families who had lost loved ones to suicide. Their primary aim is to prevent suicide by providing accessible, free, confidential counselling services.
