Norman Todd (left) and Lewisman Colin S Macleod (right) are 'Wild Swimmers of the Year 2017'
A Western Isles wild swimmer has been honoured by The Swimming Brothers as one of the nominations in their Top 10 ‘Wild Swimmers of the Year 2017’.
Colin MacLeod, along with fellow wild swimmer Norman Todd, caught the Swimming Brothers attention last summer when the pair spent nine hours swimming 14 miles from Achiltibuie to Ullapool to support local marine project ‘Living Seas’.
“We had the pleasure of meeting both Norman and Colin last summer during our ‘Wild Lady of Lochbroom Expedition’,” said The Swimming Brothers – Robbie, Calum and Jack Hudson.
“It was an absolute joy swimming with them and we had the feeling that they’d be going on to bigger and better things, which they proved by swimming from Achiltibuie to Ullapool – a whopping 14 miles.
“What we loved the most though, was that they did the swim to raise awareness for the Living Seas Project, which encourages youngsters to engage with marine life through snorkelling expeditions. Fantastic stuff!”
On their fundraising swim, which took place in October last year, Norman and Colin were accompanied by a support boat, leisure craft and kayaker who supported the pair with liquids and nutritional bars and drinks, and also kept a watchful eye out for fishing boats, ferries and even navel craft which were taking part in Joint Warrior, the UK’s largest military sea exercise at the time!
Lewis wild swimmer Colin in action
The Achiltibuie to Ullapool swim was not the first fundraising swimming feat to be undertaken by Lewisman Colin who was previously a swimmer on an attempt at the ‘Little Minch’ and later ‘The Big Minch Swim’, which raised over £24,000 for the RNLI.
He was also team captain on ‘The St Kilda Swim’ which raised over £21,000 for four charities (The Leanne Fund, The Fishermen’s Mission, Aberlour Child Trust and Yorkhill Children’s Hospital); team captain on ‘A Swim to the Shiants’ raising over £1,300 for the Hebridean Men’s Cancer Support Group, and most recently captain of ‘The Flannan Isles Mystery Swim’, raising over £4,000 for Stornoway RNLI.
To find out more about The Swimming Brothers – and their Top 10 Wild Swimmers of the Year 2017 – visit www.thewildswimmingbrothers.com