Swim Skills Academy - Children's Charity Sponsored Swim for Jessies Journey and Acorns Children's Hospice

At Swim Skills Academy we like to do everything that we can to make all our swimmers feel valued, welcome and part of the group so that they can enjoy being capable and confident swimmers and help them develop into rounded people as they grow up. Unfortunately not every child, or family, is able to participate in these sorts of activities, or enjoy good health.

We are holding our annual sponsored swim for all our swimmers to raise some much needed money for two good causes which directly help the health and welfare of local children and their families. We have raised significant funds in the previous sponsored swims and would like to continue this initiative.

The first charity we will support is Acorn Childrens Hospice. Acorns support many local children and their families across the region offering a network of specialist palliative nursing care. Acorns are there wherever and whenever they are needed whether that be in the hospice, community or at home. Recently their government funding has been reduced and we want to do our part to support their ongoing work in our communities for local children. This support recognises and thanks the hospice for their ongoing work and support which was received by one of our own swimmers sister Caitlin.

Our second recipient of sponsor money raised by the swimmers will be Jessies Journey to support a swim skills family and their experiences with childhood cancer. Jessie’s Journey is a family run UK charity (1216509) founded in Tamworth after Jessie was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2024. As Jessie continues her treatment, set to finish in May 2026, her family has experienced first-hand the challenges that childhood cancer brings, not just for the child, but for the entire family.

While vital medical care is rightly focused on the child, the emotional and practical needs of siblings and parents are often overlooked. Jessie’s Journey was created to change that, offering support to the whole family throughout their cancer journey. Jessies Journey are currently raising funds through their pop-up shop in the Ankerside Shopping Centre and community initiatives to provide:

• Counselling and emotional support for families
• Welfare boxes for hospital stays
• Shopping vouchers and help towards essential household bills
• Special days out and workshops for siblings
• Their future dream is to set up a dedicated holiday home near Birmingham Children’s Hospital, giving families a chance to rest, reconnect, and make precious memories together during treatment.

Jessie’s Journey is about ensuring no family faces childhood cancer alone, and that every member of the family feels supported, seen, and cared for.

The sponsored swim will be held on Saturday 25th April 2026 over two sessions, the first between 16:00 and 18:00 and the second 18:00 until 20:00 to accommodate all our swimmers. These sessions give swimmers the opportunity to swim from 1 Mile, 2000m, 2500m, 3000m, 4000m and potentially 5000m. For those that have already hit 5000m we have a special Swim Skills Academy 7000m distance to achieve for those that want to push for those extra lengths! Those doing the longer distances are encourage to take the earlier session or come half an hour before the second session. This event gives swimmers an opportunity to achieve their next long distance badge and help raise much needed and appreciated funds for our chosen charities. There is no charge for the session and all monies rasied will go directly to the two causes on a 50/50 basis. All badges will also be provided for free by Swim Skills Academy – the whole event costing swimmers nothing on the day.

This will be our 7th Sponsored swim and if we can raise circa £4,000 this year we will have surpassed £20,000 (we have currently raised just over £18,000 to date across our events) in funds raised for local childrens charities and will have sw am close to 850,000 metres (or the English channel swim to France 25.3 times) which I’m sure you’ll agree is an amazing achievement for our swimmers. The challenge this year is to hit these targets for these great charities so lets get swimming and fundraising!!

If each swimmer could try to raise a minimum target sum of £45, and more if possible, from friends, work colleagues and family we can make a real contribution to these local, close to home and genuinely worthwhile charities. We’ve had some incredible fundraising totals and effort in the past years which have made great contributions to the overall total raised. Top tips are to ask friends, family and neighbours to support and to take the forms to work so that we can raise as much as possible. Again this year we will have prizes arranged for swimmers and their families for the highest fundraisers – more details on this will follow shortly.

Many Thanks and happy fundraising.

Simon and the Swim Skills Academy Team