Weather permitting, several hundred sea swimmers will participate in the 20th anniversary Galway Bay Swim for Cancer Care West on Saturday (July 19)
Solo open water swimmers and relay teams will follow a course set by volunteer rescue boats on the 13km stretch of water between Aughinish, Co Clare, on the southern shore of Galway Bay to Blackrock tower in Salthill.
Depending on tide and wind conditions, first swimmers are expected at Blackrock tower any time after midday where they will be welcomed by a large team of volunteers with Cancer Care West.
About €1.8million has been raised over the past 20 years for the charity, and the swim is one of the “big three” open water swims in Irish waters.
As The Connacht Tribune recently reported, the swim was initiated in memory of the late Frances Thornton, who had been very involved in swimming in Galway.
Her son, Kevin, undertook the first swim in 2006, after his mother had been diagnosed with cancer.
Sea swimmer Kevin Thornton Photo: Joe O'Shaughnessy
Kevin and his friends had grown up in the water together through their training with Galway Swimming Club.
They were aware that Corrib Waterpolo had run a bay swim during the 1980s, and were keen to revive it.
For that first swim, Kevin and his friends Ronan Collins and Simon Flatley had kept the planning “pretty tight” and with minimal publicity.
His mother had her surgery, was in treatment, and had met lots of patients who had benefited from the work of Cancer Care West, so she asked him if he and his friends could raise any funds for the charity.
Frances and Ronan’s mum Judy then pitched in, sourcing donations of Lucozade and energy bars from the Centra in Salthill and tapping Colleran’s butchers for burgers and sausages.
Such were the conditions on that day in 2006 that Barry Heskin of RNLI Galway enlisted several larger vessels for support. The trio started out together from Aughinish on the Clare side of the bay.
“Ronan did it in three hours, I was around three hours 30 minutes, and Simon came in after us – he was the only one of us in a wetsuit and got thrown around a lot by the conditions, which knocked him back,”Kevin explains.
“I remember I had talked to Ralph O’Gorman, who reported on sport for Galway Bay FM, several days before,” Kevin says.
“He rang me that Sunday, the day after the swim, to say he presumed it hadn’t gone ahead because of the weather. He was really surprised that we had done it!”
The trio raised 3,000 euro, and the following year there were eight athletes, along with Kevin and friends. A total of 16,000 euro was raised for Cancer Care West.
Those first few bay swims finished at Palmer’s rock, and Kevin’ s mum was there to congratulate him on the shore for the first two. She passed away on April 21st, 2008, and from then on it was an annual event named in her memory.
Kevin (41), who is a father of two young children and works in marketing in North Carolina, USA, says his mother would be immeasurably proud at how it has grown, and how much it is now raising for the charity.
Kevin has done the swim “eight or nine times” , depending on how it is counted - in 2011 he swam to Co Clare and back with Sorcha Barry, who was training to swim the English Channel.
“We got across to Clare in three and a half hours, and were there in time for the start of the official swim, so we turned around and swam back with them,”he says.
“We weren’t trying to break any records, just to get in some mileage for Sorcha, and we did take breaks on the way,”he laughs. “The water was beautiful that year and I didn’t feel the cold…”
However, he had a different experience in 2012, when he had “got the triathlon bug” and had lost a lot of weight.
“I was cold even leaving Clare, was in togs, and really struggled for the last two kilometres,”he remembers. While it wasn’t “overly windy”, the direction was from the north.
“My boat skipper was going to pull me, as I couldn’t really talk, but I wanted to get to that shoreline. I had to be helped out and was taken to an ambulance to be checked out for hypothermia…”
“Ever year is different, as that is the nature of the bay,”he says.
“One year the weather was really lovely but we had thousands of the small moon jellyfish for the first couple of kilometres. They aren’t stingers but you could feel them with every stroke and it was really difficult to swim efficiently..”
“Yes, I have been stung over the years, but nothing serious …”
It wasn’t long before Kevin’s younger siblings, Fiona and Claire began to participate. They both completed their first solo swims in 2011, the same year that Kevin completed it both ways.
The Thornton sisters have since participated in both solos and relays, helped out on shore with organisation, and the three siblings completed a relay with their dad, Brian.
“I think the sea has helped us all to manage our grief,”Fiona (37), an occupational therapist living in Galway, says.
“The memory of my mum has always been such a driving force,”she says. “And we know many other swimmers who have their own motivations.”
“I remember Kevin had written “for Mum” on his chest for his second swim in 2007 and I will never forget them hugging each other when he came in – it was very special,” Fiona says.
The fact that it has become such a community event with so many volunteers is the ultimate tribute to her mother, Fiona believes.
“ I am constantly in awe of how people turn out to help. We have always had extended family, from my aunts and cousins to friends and more who give of their time every year,”she says.
“So when the swimmers sign up for the event, they are signing into that larger community,”she says.
“Local businesses give support, so many boats turn out to guide swimmers and provide rescue back-up, and the Order of Malta has been there every year to provide medical expertise,”she says.
“Whether I am swimming or helping out, my one great concern is safety, and so I really only relax when I know everyone is back safe and sound,”Fiona says.
Claire Thornton (29), a primary school teacher in Dublin, was only a teenager when she did her first bay swim, solo, with her sister Fiona in 2011.
“I had swum a lot but I was still really nervous. Knowing my brother and sister were out there helped, and my best friend was on my support boat,”she says.
“The second time I did it was with my best friend, Richard O’Connell, and we swam side by side. We are both doing it again this year,”she says.
Training always starts in the pool, and she had been completing her kilometres in the Guinness pool in Dublin, but transferred to the sea around Easter when she was home.
“The pool is great for building up distance and stamina, but you need to be reminded of those waves, currents, the splashing and the sighting required in the sea,”she says.
“Training can be a bit boring, but I tend to hum tunes or snippets of songs, and then it is always good to have the right nutrition,” she says.
“Any swims I have been part of have been joyous occasions,”she says.
Weather is always a lottery, but the only time the swim didn’t go ahead was during Covid, and it was replaced with a “virtual “ swim where people could swim 13 km in their own time for sponsorship. It proved to be very successful as it opened the event up to swimmers abroad.
“After mum passed away, I remember Barry Heskin used to say that she was smiling down on us to give us a good day,”Kevin says.
To mark the 20th annual swim, Dave O’Donnell of Cancer Care West plans to run a “virtual” event this year during August, and more details will be announced shortly.
The 20th annual Galway Bay Swim in memory of Frances Thornton takes place on Saturday July 19th, and details on how to donate or sponsor a swimmer are on the website
