Galway woman’s Channel challenge

A Galway native is one of seven deaf women based in Dublin who intend to swim across the English Channel in order to raise funds for a charity which is close to their hearts next month.

Civil servant Patricia Heffernan, nee Melia, has been training for five or six days per week in anticipation of the gruelling swim from Dover to Calais which is due to take place on July 3.

All funds raised by the seven female singers will go to the Irish Deaf Women’s Group, a voluntary organisation for hard of hearing women all over the country.

A former competitive swimmer, Tuam native Patricia admits that she is a little daunted by the prospect of undertaking a challenge which is expected to take between 13 and 16 hours to complete.

“I fell in love with swimming from the day the pool opened in Tuam,” she told the Connacht Tribune this week. “I guess I have been a strong swimmer since I was in school.”

She won five swimming championships during her time at St Mary’s School for the Deaf and two bronze medals at the European Championships at Crystal Palace in South London.

Patricia, who now works at the Passport Office in Dublin, attended the St Mary’s School for the Deaf in Cabra after growing up at The Mall, Tuam.

Married to Kevin, with two daughters Georgina and Katie, she lives in Blackrock, Dublin.

She immediately took up the challenge when a fellow deaf swimmer, Bernie White from Kerry, told her about a plan she had to get a group of women to swim across the English Channel.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.