Brrr! That's cold! Tipperary Town man swims to Scotland in January!

A team of six swimmers from Ireland including one from Tipperary Town have set an historic record in completing the North Channel swim from Ireland to Scotland, without wet suits, in winter.

The Walrus Swim Team, whose members are Niamh McCarthy, Declan Bradshaw, Vincent Donegan, Ger Kennedy, Colm Morris and Dave Berry, finished the epic challenge on Friday January 13, in 12 hours and 51 minutes.

Declan Bradshaw is a native of Tipperary Town and is son of John and Maura Bradshaw who were proprietors of Ach na Sheen B&B, currently run by daughter Sylvia and husband Ger (Noonan).

Declan who lives in Dublin is an experienced swimmer and along with other members of the team had been training at the Forty Foot, as well as off Killiney and Portrane.

Prior to the swim Declan said that he was focusing on the other end of the journey. “We’re going to celebrate enormously, I think it’ll be a huge relief to start with. Once we hit land we’re in the boat and then we’ve got a couple of bottles of champagne we’ll pop open.”

What makes their achievement even more remarkable is that the six swimmers took to the chilling waters of the North Channel without the protection of wetsuits. Given the arduous conditions and water temperatures, the North Channel challenge normally takes place in the summer months.

The six have a lot of experience in cold temperatures and had been planning for the challenge since last summer.

The members of the Walrus Swim Team became the first relay team to do so out of season in winter, with water temperatures of around 8C and air temperatures around 6C.

They completed the 35km relay swim from Donaghadee in Northern Ireland to Portpatrick in Scotland, arriving in Portpatrick just before 8pm.

The North Channel challenge is considered the toughest of the seven ocean sea swims, which include the English Channel and the Cook Strait in New Zealand.

The swim is raising funds for the Gavin Glynn Foundation which supports families fighting childhood cancer. The mission of

The Gavin Glynn Foundation is to assist families battling childhood cancer in Ireland with all the logistical and financial aspects of travelling overseas for specialist cancer treatment not available in Ireland.

They are the only registered charity providing this support to families battling childhood cancer.

The Gavin Glynn Foundation currently relies solely on donations and fundraisers to help any family that may need support in Ireland.

You can still donate to the swim challenge at the following link; https://www.idonate.ie/ fundraiser/11422555_ extreme-winter-relay-north- channel-for-the-gavin-glynn- foundation.html

Our congratulations to Declan and to his fellow team members on their historic achievement.