Makala from Milford completes English Channel swim

MAKALA JONES, a member of The Bluetits Chill Swimmers cold water swimming organisation, has completed her charity swim of the English Channel in just 16 hours 25 minutes. The swim has enabled her to raise over £8000, with funds going to The Bluetits’ water safety training programme and to Paul Sartori Hospice at Home.

Makala, 55, from Milford Haven, set off at 2am on July 9 and finished at 17:25 the same day, having battled jellyfish stings for much of the journey. The tides also caused challenges, sweeping her off her ideal course and making the trip take significantly longer than hoped. While the crossing is 21 miles in a straight line, Makala ended up covering 40 miles to reach France.

“The biggest challenges were mental ones,” she says. “I thought physically I hadn’t done enough training, and that if anything was going to get me, that would be it. Mentally I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn’t anticipate just how hard it would be.”

To get through it, she thought of her children, whose names are tattooed on her arm; seeing them written there spurred her on. She was also supported by the presence of her partner, trainer and Bluetits coach Colin Hughes and Bluetits member Jemeima PhillipsRichardson on board Masterpiece, the support boat that accompanied her on the swim.

Channel swimmers must stick to strict rules to avoid being disqualified, and while the support boat is there for safety and to provide food and drink, they are not allowed to touch it.

“Every half hour I would stop for a feed and every four hours I was having paracetamol because it helps with the pain of the jellyfish stings – and there were a lot of those during the first half of the trip,” she says. “It wasn’t a solo trip: having Colin and Jemima on the boat feeding me and getting it right was vital – three other swimmers didn’t finish that day and it’s very much thanks to my support crew that I did.”

Her success is also down to months of training, both in swimming pools and in open water. Bluetits founder Sian Richardson, who is Jemeima’s mum, took Makala out for long sea swims off the coast of Pembrokeshire, and through the winter she trained in a swimming pool, notching up as much as 70k a month.

“As often as I could I was getting in the water and Sian took me out on the boat for hours at a time – she took me through Ramsey Sound, which was interesting,” she says.

Makala credits The Bluetits, which was founded by Sian in St Davids in 2014, with helping her overcome debilitating depression. She still remembers her first cold water dip with the Bluetits and the effect it had on her.

“When I got in the water, my mind went completely clear for the first time I can remember. I still feel that now when I get in cold water,” she says. “The Bluetits saved my life.”

Friends she made through The Bluetits encouraged her to get counselling, which also significantly helped her recovery – and then Sian suggested Makala take advantage of the bursaries The Bluetits were offering for people to train as swim coaches. Makala’s coaching business, Calm Seas, is the result.

“The Bluetits gave me the courage to push things a little bit further in the open water, because I didn’t like swimming in deep water,” she says.

“With The Bluetits you’ve always got somebody to swim with and their safety training is incredible. I’m grateful to Sian for sending me training and teaching me everything I know. This Channel swim is massively down to the Bluetits and the support that they’ve given me.”

For someone who doesn’t like deep water, Makala did remarkably well, swimming in water that was 350 feet deep on her crossing.

“I kept telling myself, it’s just one day in my life. With depression, you never know how long it’s going to last or how bad it’s going to be. But I knew this swim was just going to be one day. I know I’m mentally strong because when you suffer from depression, you are fighting every day – but until I completed this swim, I had no idea I was that strong.

“I would say to anyone who has a dream: don’t give up on it, because I first dreamt of swimming the Channel when I was 12 and now, four days after my 55th birthday, I’ve done it.”