In at the deep end

Lifestyle – Mark Dunleavy went the extra mile for Cancer Care West this month, completing a return ‘in skins’ swim across Galway Bay as he took part in the annual fundraiser in memory of Frances Thornton. This year and last, most people did the 26km swim remotely but Mark travelled from Salthill to Clare – and back again, as DENISE MCNAMARA learns.

Despite having his toes nibbled by a seal and getting stung by a Compass Jellyfish, Salthill native Mark Dunleavy describes his first two-way Frances Thornton Memorial Galway Bay Swim as good as he could have hoped for.

When he finished it, Mark became only the third person without a wet suit to complete the 26km course from Blackrock to Clare and back again. He was one of 280 who did the swim virtually this year – so far the event has raised €78,000 for the patient and family organisation, Cancer Care West.

The swim from Salthill started off choppy, he explains, but as the day warmed up, the sea calmed down until he got to the Martello Tower at Aughinish in Clare where the tide was coming out. That meant it took him 40 minutes to swim a kilometre instead of his usual 20 minutes.

Mark clocked a time of eight hours, 57 minutes and four seconds for the entire swim. He completed it ‘in skins’, as the swimmers’ lingo calls it – or without the buoyancy benefit of a wetsuit, which also protects against chaffing. For the undertaking, he donned a single swimming cap and a simple pair of shorts, earplugs and a nose peg.

Abiding by the official rules for swimming the English Channel, Mark was not allowed to wear a watch or touch his support boat for a break. His sustenance was a drink of warm Ribena, a caffeine gel and carbohydrate drinks. The boat was piloted by Ciaran Harte and monitoring his every move was his brother, Rory Dunleavy.

With sponsorship still coming in, Mark has already raised some €4,700 for the cancer charity – his target was €1,000.

Mark’s first Frances Thornton Galway Bay swim was back in 2017 and he explains that it sparked a newfound interest in triathlons and long-distance swimming. He now engages in these several times a week in the Liffey near his adopted home in Punchestown, County Kildare.

Just shy of his 50th birthday, he’s an enthusiastic of member of several swimming and triathlon clubs which have generated a lot of support for this swim.

The Galway Bay round trip will be his first certified long-distance sea swim after missing out on his slot to swim the English Channel in 2019 due to poor weather. He plans to finally complete it next year.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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