Swimming superstar, Millie Bell is such an inspiration to us all at Saint Michael’s Hospice. Not only has she taken on a Modern Pentathlon and a channel relay, but she also bravely took on a solo swim of the English Channel, that is all the way from Dover to France! Millie swam the channel in August this year and completed the challenge in an unbelievable 13 hours and 11 minutes! She raised an incredible £5,832 to support vital care here at Saint Michael’s Hospice.
(A Modern Pentathlon is a multisport that consist of fencing, freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, laser pistol shooting, and track running.)
We caught up with Millie to find out all about her incredible challenge and her connection to our charity. Saint Michael’s Hospice is a charity that is close to Millie’s heart as her Nanna was cared for by us in her final days. Millie said;
“Saint Michael’s Hospice has such a calming atmosphere, and everyone was so caring. Saint Michael’s gives people a place to die with dignity. My nanna’s every need was met and most importantly she never had to wait for any pain relief.
My nanna was 100% my number one fan, and I know she would have absolutely loved for me to do the challenge, she would have loved telling all her friends about it and would have been so proud of me, so it was easy to pick the charity.”
Millie’s Nanna, Sandra
Chatting to Millie, we discovered she is a big believer in pushing her limits and learning what she can do. She is always looking for the next challenge. In 2021 Millie took on a channel relay, this challenge involves six people swimming the UK channel, in one-hour intervals, each participant takes turns to swim a section of the channel. Millie stated that this challenge made her realise a solo swim was possible.
Following this phenomenal relay challenge, which took the participants 18 hours and 29 minutes, Millie started to plan her solo swim. As there is a waiting list Millie’s swim was booked for 2024. This gave her 3 years to build up her swims and train to take on the 21-mile solo swim.
“I knew the channel would test my body to its limits, however what I didn’t realise is how challenging it would be for my head.”
Millie told us the hardest thing she had to overcome while training was her fear of the sea. Millie suffered from panic attacks in the water and worked with sports psychologists to help overcome this fear.
Millie has always dreamed of achieving two things; completing a Modern Pentathlon and swimming the channel, now that she has achieved both, her friends and family wonder what amazing but crazy thing, she will want to do next. Millie, who always wants to push herself says she will keep that to herself for now.
Millie also told us she used Battenberg, her favorite sweet treat, to keep her going throughout her swim. Every hour she would have a sweet treat like a piece of Battenberg alongside her high carb energy drink to give her something to look forward to. She stated this was not a ‘textbook’ method but that it worked well for her.
Millie’s goal was to raise £1,000 for Saint Michael’s Hospice, but amazingly, she managed to raise almost 6x her initial target. Her final fundraising total was £5,832, which included match funding from Millie’s workplace, VP PLC, which doubled her total.
“I would also like to thank my coaches, family and friends who have supported me in the last three years. Especially my coach, Carrine Green who helped plan my training and my partner, Luke who gave up his summer to spend countless hours on a paddle board supporting my training.”
For anyone wanting to take on a challenge like this, here is a piece of advice from the swimming star herself;
“Break it down into achievable goals. Work back from when the event is and set yourself a plan, incorporate in rest. I had my rest every 4 weeks. I would have a rest week and then start training again and after all that remember why you are doing it. When training sessions are getting hard, remind yourself that it is going to be hard, but it is going to make the end goal easier.”
We look forward to seeing what Millie takes on next, Battenberg in hand and ready for the next challenge.
