 is the water boys, and how long will I love you? Now, tomorrow's going to be a big day for Elaine Boyle from Rana Fast, because she has swum in the sea at Boatstrand near Kirkfinn for the past 99 days, without a break. And tomorrow will be her 100th day straight. And she's raising money for a very worthy cause. In this case, it's Dunlop Community Hospital Patient Comfort Fund. And she joins us now by Zoom and her scrubs from her workplace. Elaine, how are you? I'm good, John. Yes, thank you very much. We had snow in here at the moment. Were you in today already, or do you have to be done? It was. There was five of us in this morning at half seven. Five. And I suppose you're going to tell me now, it wasn't as cold as we thought it would be. This morning was the first morning that it was actually cold coming out of the water. The water wasn't too bad when we were in it. It's the one-chill factor when you come out of the water that's the worst bit. Yeah, because normally, no matter how cold you are going in, when you come out then, you feel invigorated and it's never that cold. No, it's never that cold. And it really, you know, normally it's quite OK, but the one-chill factor coming today was just that extra bit colder than normal. So, 99 days. And what have they been like before you started it? You know, what were you thinking? Were you fairly confident? Did you not know? Well, we started this. We started this back on the first of November. A friend of ours, whose son was with us from Kilmachrenan, Dennis Sheridan, was doing 30 days for PA to house. So, we volunteered to support Dennis and do bits and pieces with him. So, we went down every morning. So, we had the 30 days done and we went on into December then. And as it was coming a wee bit closer to Christmas, it was a wee knock on my head that, well, I have nearly 50 days done now. Should we do harm to do another 50? But I felt like I wanted to do it for something and to raise funds for a worthy cause. We went through a few of them. And while I was in at work here one day, somebody came in looking for something for one of the patients in the hospital. And I thought, no, that's the most worthy cause that I can think of at this very time. So, a few of us knocked the idea around and spoke with the hospital. And there was no problem with them. So, we put it out on the 1st of January that I was going to complete my 100 days and we were going to try and raise some funds for the patient comfort fund in Dunlop. So, you started out with Dennis helping him on his 30 days and then you decided to do 50 days. And this is before you decided, well, maybe I could raise a bit of money for charity if I go all the way to 100. Yeah, that was more or less it, yeah. There's a picture of you and Dennis and Charlie the Yank and Patty Bond in today's Tribune. And all looking very hardy. Well, I can tell you, Dennis looks particularly hardy because he's not normally pair of shorts on him. Dennis always knocks up in just a pair of shorts on him. He is the toughest wee man I know. He is unbelievable and he is such an inspiration. He's great altogether. And it looks like this was a swim that some friends of yours gathered around for support. It was in Rathmullen at the weekend. And how did that go? Yeah, I've tried a few different locations. I went to Malinhead as well and done Malinhead and it was lovely. And then a few of us, Charlie and Sally and Mary and Danielle and Dennis, we got together and we thought, Dennis always comes in to join us. So we thought for a change, we'd go out to join him. But we didn't know that Dennis had informed all his other swimmers from Rathmullen that we were en route. Brilliant, brilliant. So there was a welcoming committee there for my first one at Rathmullen yesterday. But it's nice to swim in different locations as well. We normally swim the group of us, the Dauntless Dippers. We normally swim down in the Boatstran and Carrick Fund. Half seven in the morning could be half seven in the evening. Just depends on weather and people's timing and everything else. But there are really, there is social group. When I joined them first in February, I joined them socially more than first woman. They're very friendly and it doesn't matter whether you just want to go in and splash water up on yourself or you want to go in and have a swim. It doesn't matter what your ability is, you're always welcome to come down and join them. And you come out then and to heat up, we'll go for a wee walk. And then of course, there's the tea. So you don't have- But it's the highlight of the day. You don't have to be mad to join the group, but it helps. No, it doesn't. You don't have to be mad at all. We're all very sensible lads. And tell me, is it half seven in the morning or half seven in the evening? Or is there some days there'll be a group there both times? There could be a group there at any stage of the day. We have a WhatsApp group. So if you're going down, you just stick a wee message in the group, heading down at seven, there'll be one or two who might join you. Sometimes it suits people at two or three in the afternoon to go down. But there's generally somebody about most of the time, but we try and get as many as possible at the same time. So most of the time, you wouldn't have been on your own in the water over these 19-year-old days? I was never on my own in the water. We never go onto the water on our own. That's a good thing. We have all the safety equipment, as you would say. We have our tow floats on. We stay fairly close to the shore. And one of the rules would be with us is that you never really go onto the water on your own. So it was somebody there with you or somebody on the pier watching you to make sure that you're safe. The longer it went on and the closer you got to the 100 days, we're not worried that you'd pick up a bug or get COVID or something and that you wouldn't be able to do it. No, it never bothered me. And I have to say, since I started in the water on the 1st of February last year, I haven't had touch wood. I haven't had a cold or a flu or a bug or anything. It's just been... I have to say, for my own mental health and my physical health, it's the best thing that I've ever done. It's a great advertisement for sea swimming, then. Without a doubt. And I've tried everything, John. I've done athletics. I've done cycling. I've done running. I've done everything. But I have to say, the swimming is the one thing I've found that has helped me completely, both mentally and physically. The way I would describe it is that when... It doesn't matter what you're thinking about when you go down to swim. When you get into the water, you have two things to think about. Staying warm and staying afloat. So whatever's in your head, it gets flushed away, shall we say. And you just have to concentrate and stay warm and stay afloat. And by the time you come out, all those worries and panics that you had before you went down, you're set to yourself. What was I thinking about that for? Sure, that'll be grand. We'll sort that out when we get to it. So it's great that way. Yeah, I suppose when you're almost like at the mercy of the elements, it puts things in perspective. Yeah, it definitely does. It definitely does. And, you know, different things, I suppose people go to the water for different reasons. A lot of people go to the water just for the health benefits of the cold water on their bones and their muscles and their joints. A lot of people go because maybe they have some difficulties with their mental health and this helps them here. Some people just go up to it for sheer enjoyment. But the benefits that the sea water has are second to none. And we say sea swimming, some days you might go in and swim, but other days, would it be just in and out? Depending on the weather, most days you'll go in. At the minute, we stay in the water for anything up from six to 12 minutes. During the summer then, as it gets longer, you could spend an hour in the water. We also, later on in the year, we do Snau Gola, whereas when we swam from Gola Island into the mainland in Mararot, we raise funds for the cancer flights from Karegfin. So we come June, July and August. You could be in the water for an hour, an hour and 20 minutes practice for that. At the minute, it's anywhere between six and 12 minutes. If it's a really choppy, stormy day, you'll just, I was just going in, dipping two or three minutes back out again. How long would the swim from Gola take? Swam from Gola takes about two hours, depending on your ability. Some people can have it done in under the hour, but depending on your ability, you can balance it out for about two hours, taking breaks and making sure safety-wise, there's a lot of boats on it, safety-wise that everybody's okay. But it's two hours and it's an unreal experience as well. So you only started sea swimming last a year ago, but you haven't looked back? No, I've never looked back. Never looked back. Right. And now, well, I'm asking you now to look back over the last 99 days. And I'm sure there's been some days, some mornings or evenings, dark evenings, that you're thinking, oh, I have to do this, because then you've made the commitment and I suppose you just had no choice. Yeah, you go and do it. No, there was no choice. There was no choice, but it was also, it was a personal thing as well. Like, I wanted to prove to myself that I was able to complete something for a hundred days. You know, I just got up in the mornings. It's a great way to get up and start your day. I always feel like it's a great way to get up and start your day. But some of the mornings, those frosty mornings where we weren't able to get out with the car, so we were having to go down maybe in the afternoon or sometimes somebody can't join you in the mornings where you rearrange it for the evening, but we're lucky enough in the boat strand. The boat strand has a fabulous streak light on the pier. So it lights up the water around so we can go in and out safely in the evenings as well. And now thankfully there's a bit of a stretch coming in them, so we will not be as reliant on that as we wear all winter. So tomorrow it is, what time tomorrow do you finish up? What time is the last one? Five o'clock tomorrow evening on the boat strand and everybody is welcome to join us. And the GoFundMe page is still open and anybody who wants to just donate ordinarily, there will be a bucket there on the evening and or they can come in here to the chemist and me and just leave it in the chemist with me. That's a total health and anagry. Total health and anagry, yes it is. There'll be some buzz tomorrow evening. Yeah, it is, even at the minute now there is, there's quite a buzz within the group and everybody's posting wee things and it's brilliant all together. What are you gonna do tonight? I wouldn't be able to do what I have done today without the help of the group and the support and the encouragement of the people in the group but may have made on to the step first. Okay, okay. What are you gonna do on Saturday morning? I'm gonna go for a small one half seven on Saturday morning, John. I'm a lion for heaven's sake. Well listen, good luck just to remind people that GoFundMe page is still open or if you wanna leave a donation and if you happen to be around tomorrow evening at five or a pop at any stage to your total health and anagry. Leon, thanks a million. Thank you very much, John. Thank you.