Dervla takes a dip
The game was up when Dervla Ireland came into Ealing Hospital smelling of chlorine once too often.
“What are you up to?” asked fellow doctors catching the whiff of l’eau de swimming pool following her around the ward.
Dervla has been spending several hours a week training for a cross-channel relay swim later this summer in aid of charity.
The six person team, which includes a lawyer, policeman, soldier and teachers, expect to swim three one-hour legs on the Dover-Calais crossing avoiding ships, jellyfish and whatever else the English Channel throws at them.
“I’m trying not to think about the jellyfish or getting seasick,” says the 25 year-old junior doctor who joined the trust last summer.
She’s got some big flippers to fill.
Her father has completed a solo channel swim not to mention some sibling rivalry in the shape of sister Kelly who has already taken part in a successful channel relay swim.
Dervla added: “I was ten-years-old when my dad swam the channel and remember being distinctly unimpressed until my mum told me he was in the water from more than 14 hours.”
She began training last summer but faced serious disruption when the second lockdown saw swimming pools and group activities suspended and managed to stay in shape by cycling and running, despite the punishing workload of working on a covid ward.
She found a novel way to acclimatise to the bracing waters of the channel by taking increasing long cold showers and baths to toughen her up.
Her DIY approach echoes that of Olympic champion Don ‘Mighty Mouse’ Walker who replicated the sweltering heat of Rome by training next to a tub of steaming hot water in his bathroom.
Dervla said: “I’m swimming several hours a week now and have been using the outdoor ponds in Hampstead and the local reservoir. It’s going well and we had our first group session in Dover recently which involved swimming round the harbour. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.”
The Aspire Bulldogs will need all the tenacity of their namesake to complete the 21 mile crossing which stretches to an arm-aching 26 miles with the `drift of the current.
Dervla who is raising money for Aspire, a charity that helps people with life changing spinal injuries regain their independence. If you would like to sponsor her, go to
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/dervla-ireland