Tracy has raised circa £25,000 for various charities close to her heart. This she could not do without the support from her incredible and generous friends! Her philosophy is, choose something or someone dear to your heart and this will help you get through the tough times of your challenge.
English Channel
Tracy raised €8,600 and split this amount equally between the following charities:
Fairwork (human trafficking organisation) (an issue Tracy became aware of during her years of volunteering at the Women and Children’s Shelter)
Breast Cancer Research Charity | Breast Cancer Campaign (in recognition of a brave friend Cathy Lyon who has fought both breast cancer and leukemia)
Dalyan Dog Rehabilitation Centre based in Turkey (we became aware of the tireless work wonderful volunteers do here after our recent trip to Dalyan)
Tracy and Lisa Barnes organised a swimmathon where the children from their school ‘swam’ the distance of the English Channel. The children completely blew all expectations and swam an amazing 160kms and raised £4163.52 for Breast Cancer Now. This charity was very special as Cathy Lyon (Miss Cathy to the children) was a true hero in all she did for this charity. Sadly Cathy passed away on 4 January 2014.
Gibraltar Strait and Catalina Channel
Tracy raised a further €2,461 for Breast Cancer Now, the charity dear to Cathy Lyon’s heart.
Manhattan Island
Together with Roger Finch, Tracy raised £5,020 towards Rosalinda Hardiman’s all terrain wheelchair. Thank you again to all the wonderful friends and swimmers from all around the world who in Ros’s words – changed her life! Here is her story:
On 15 August 2016 Tracy Clark swam around Manhattan Island and on 20 August Roger Finch swam the Boston Light. They both raised £5,020 to help Ros Hardiman – UK Paralympian (2 times) and English Channel solo swimmer – get an all terrain wheelchair!
Ros was born in 1952 and contracted poliomyelitis or Infantile Paralysis when she was six. 3 years ago she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis in her hands. She uses a wheelchair but prides herself on independence. She had a full-time job as a museum curator until increasing disability recently forced her into early retirement. She is on her own so doesn’t have the back-up of a partner or family. Her mother taught her to swim when she was 8 but until she came to Portsmouth she hadn’t had any coaching or taken it seriously. She loved living near to sea and began open water swimming. She has completed many open water swims but the English Channel she could only dream!
She was honoured to represent Great Britain in all European and World Championships between 1994 and 2001. She also competed at both the Atlanta and Sydney Paralympic Games. Between 1995 and 2001 she broke 8 world records, one of which she held for 12 years! She did 2 Channel Relays in 2006 and 2007.
In 2008 her solo English Channel dream seemed to be within reach. It began well, however, a nagging pain in one shoulder became a massive focus of pain, the cold began to seep into her and recurrent sea-sickness made her desperately want to stop it but she was determined that she shouldn’t be the one to end it. After 25 hours and 14 minutes her crew fished her out. Totally exhausted and nearly unconscious and only 0.7 miles off the French coast! she couldn’t make any further progress, she had nothing left. It took over two months to recover. In 2009 she was back, support and encouragement from my friends in Channel swimming as well as her own determination fuelled her next attempt. On 26-27 September she took 20 hours and 17 minutes to swim the English Channel.
