Husband and wife duo, Martin and Adele Lowe completed individual swim challenges on Sunday, March 30, to help raise money for the Swimathon Foundation.

The couple, who have had their own health struggles, helped raise £1,785 for the Swimathon Foundation, which benefits charities Marie Curie and Cancer Research UK.

Adele has multiple sclerosis and swam 2.5km for her fundraising effort, while Martin completed a triple 5km effort, swimming 5km each day on Friday, March 28 at Knighton pool, Saturday, March 29 at Brecon pool, and Sunday, March 30 at Builth Wells swimming pool.

Martin was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and also had a tumour on his pancreas removed in April 2021.

They decided to raise money for Marie Curie and Cancer Research UK as both sadly lost their mothers to the disease.

Adele completed this swim challenge on her 60th birthday. Speaking about their challenges she said: “Martin wanted to do a triple 5K because he hasn’t done one for quite a few years since his operation.

“I wasn’t going to do one and then I thought I really should do something to mark my 60th birthday and it seemed like a good challenge. I used to do loads of stuff but now I can hardly do anything because of my MS, but I’ve always liked to challenge myself.”

From being a keen swimmer in his youth where he dreamt of becoming the next Mark Spitz, Martin took to the pool again in 2017 after 42 years away from the sport.

He then spent some more time out of the pool with his health issues but he was back in just eight weeks after his operation. Adele was not as interested in swimming as Martin but taught herself to swim front crawl without the use of her legs due to her MS. Now loving the sport, she is a cold-water swimmer.

“I don’t want people to feel sorry for me,” said Adele. “I’m fighting against the condition and remaining active. Cold water swimming is the thing I can do outside that gives me that buzz from the activities I used to do like climbing, biking and skiing.”

The pair from Llandeilo Graban have completed many fundraising efforts before, including a bike ride from Land’s End to John o' Groats for Cancer Research, sailing around Britain, and a cycle ride to raise funds for Llanigon Schoo,l where Adele used to work.

The day after completing their swim challenges, Adele told The Brecon & Radnor Express: “We both feel really great to have finished and achieve our goals. We were too tired to celebrate my birthday.

“We’re both feeling much better today as yesterday we both woke up not feeling very well not what was needed! Needless to say, a tough swim was even harder than it should have been.

“The staff at Knighton, Brecon and Builth Wells swimming pools were great, so thank you to them. A huge thank you to all our sponsors and all the messages of support we received.

“An amazing amount was raised!”