Why I swim
I’m swimming this March because too many young lives are lost to suicide. Every lap I swim will help make sure there’s a safe place for young people to turn when life feels overwhelming. I am truly humbled by the donations that had come in so far, and this is a great motivation for me to get all the laps in that I will need!
I'm swimming to save lives
Suicide remains the leading cause of death for young people in Australia.
More than 1 in 3 are experiencing mental health difficulties, yet over a million are not getting the support they need.
ReachOut provides anonymous, free and 100% online services so young people can find a safe place to connect, share and get help when life feels overwhelming.
I’m taking part in Laps for Life to make sure these vital services are always there. Please donate to my fundraiser and help more young people get the support they deserve.
My Swim Progress
Completed
18.60km (372 laps)
My goal
20km
My Impact
So far I’ve raised $2,117 to provided 529.315 young people experiencing mental health difficulties with vital support.
Top Donation
$264
Volker Presser
Shoutout to Volker Presser – my biggest supporter so far with a $264 donation to help young people get the mental health support they need through ReachOut!
Funds Raised
Note: displays max previous 3 years of fundraising only
My Updates
almost there....
One more swim to go! Today I broke my record of uninterrupted swim, with 2150m before taking a break (and then immediately finishing the set after 2 more laps). If I consider that just 2 months ago my longest swim at all was 1500m, and that I hardly could do more than 1000m without break, that is amazing. ShareWhen you stop counting....
Haha, today I was swimming away. Not chasing any record, just do my 80 laps that I wanted to do. As you do, I lost track of my lap count, and just kept swimming, believing I still needed to do more. When I stopped I was already at 2.15km. Of course I had to do 50m more then to make it an even number. So without wanting, I extended my goal by another 200m. Unfortunately I didnt realise in the moment that with that I was only 100m short of being at exactly 10k overall. If I did, I would have done those laps quickly. ShareFirst week goal achieved
Today was tough. Hard to get out of bed, and then I got to the pool, and it was crowded, which I hate. Eventually I did swim, telling me every lap counts and I can do a little less today. But guess what, I kept swimming, and I repeated the 1.9km again. I really didnt think I had that in me today. I feel very victorious right now :)700m ahead of my schedule. Saturday I'll do a regular gym day, and next Monday I will be back in the water! Share
And we are swimming!
So today I did my first swim for the month! All the donations really forces me to get over myself, get up early and jump into the pool before work. 1900 m were the result, and as a personal best, I swam the first 1850 of those without a single break, making it the longest continuous swim I have ever done :)We are off to a good start!
Soon the clock will start for the swimming
I am humbled by all the donations that have come in already. Many, many thanks to everyone who gave so far!I am still going slowly on my swimming. This is so I dont burn out before I actually start on 01 March. Yet, I am slowly ramping up the number of lanes that I am swimming, and I am now comfortably in the range where I want to be to achieve the 20k with 3 swims per week.
Thanks again to all donors! This is awesome, and I am so happy that we have such a good sum of money already together. I just upped my goal to 2000 AUD, never thought that would happen! Share
increased fundraising goal
I am blown away by the amount of donations that came already in. I am so grateful for every donation, and am especially happy to see donations from friends and colleagues that I am even not that close to. This means a lot to me!Anyhow, since we have already reached pretty much my original funding goal, I went up. Lets see if we can get that!
Also, like in Jan, I will match donations up to a total of 250 AUD again in February. Plus, there is an awesome offer right now that the Gonski Foundation will match my donation. So every dollar donated right now is likely to be tripled! Share
Awesome start in January
I am sooo happy that there have already been a number of generous donations in January! And that before I really started. As promised, I matched donations with a self-donation of 250 AUD.As for swimming, I am taking it slow at the moment, since I know that I will swim alot in March for sure. Until then, I am steadily increasing my distance. Top do the 20k in one month with 3 swims per week, I need to do 66 laps each. That is the plan. My previous 'normal' distance was 60 laps, so I have upped this to 66 already. I am planning to further up this to 70-75 laps, so I get a bit of a safety margins for rainy days Share
Thank you to my
supporters
$263.75
Volker Presser
$263.75
Tanja Junkers
$198.34
Volker Presser
$135.04
Blair
$106.12
Greg Quintens
Hi Tanja! I hope you are doing well! Nice initiative and good luck with the remaining laps!!
$94.86
Lars
$94.86
Anna Slater
Great cause - hope the swimming goes well!
$80
Tanja Junkers
$64.67
Antonio Patti
$64.67
Max W
$55
Tanja Junkers
$55
Matched by Gonski Foundation
$54.99
Ian James
$49
Yuxi Liu
$48.71
Tanja Junkers
$48.71
Matched by Gonski Foundation
$44
Tanja Junkers
$44
Matched by Gonski Foundation
$43.60
Lakshani Weerarathna
$43.60
Nick Birbilis
Great cause 👏🏽
$43.60
Gayathri Dev Ammini
$38.33
Anonymous
$33.15
Lydia
Bon courage !
$33.15
Elaine
Go Tanja!!
$30
Vianna
$23
Tanja Junkers
$23
Matched by Gonski Foundation
$22.58
Tim Davey
$11.65
Igor Silva
$6.13
Anonymous
Now u got to 2000