Mersey mum renews bid to become first person ever to swim around Anglesey in a single effort

With winds of 45-miles an hour, Huyton mum Sue Haines was forced to abandon her epic challenge to swim around Anglesey in a single effort in September last year.

But the 54-year-old has refused to give up – and now she’s getting ready to conquer the island off the northwest coast of Wales again next month.

Sue will still have to brave the choppy waters of the Irish Sea as well as perilous stings from jelly fish.

But she says she’s more determined than ever to complete the feat and is keeping everything crossed that conditions are on her side this time.

She admitted:

“I was gutted when I they wouldn’t let me attempt it last year,”

“After two years of training, to be told I couldn’t do it was heart-rending.”

She said:

“The winds were just too strong. I’d have got nowhere and it would have been dangerous, so I had to face the fact that it wasn’t going to happen.

“But with so much riding on it I was never going to give up, and I’m hoping that when I try again during the week of August 12-16, the tides and the weather will be in my favour, and the pilot gives me the green light to go.

“I am more determined than ever.”

Sue has continued training with sessions of up to eight hours of non-stop swimming at Liverpool Watersports Centre in Queens Dock.

Her aim is to swim the 70 miles around the island in one day, something no-one else has managed before.

She added:

“People have broken it down into separate swims over four days. But no-one’s ever done it in one go.”

She is hoping to succeed in a 15-hour marathon effort.

Sue, who works as a nanny, has always been a keen swimmer after being taught by her dad as a young girl.

But it was after her mum, Margaret, sadly died from cancer 17 years ago that she changed from swimming in a pool to tackling the wilder waters of rivers, lakes and seas.

In a bid to give something back to Marie Curie in Woolton who looked after her in the last week of her life, Sue did the Great North Swim – the mile course of Windermere in the Lake District – to raise money for them.

And, after training in the Albert Dock, she became hooked, enjoying the mental and physical health benefits and the camaraderie she found.

To date, she’s swum the length of Coniston; the length and back of Ullswater which totals 14.5 miles; completed the full 10½ mile length of Windermere, and battled her way around 41 miles of the Jersey coastline – twice!”

Sue has also swum the 21 miles of the channel.

The Anglesey feat is her biggest challenge to date.

“I feel more ready than ever and it will be such an achievement to be the first person ever to do it.

“And there’s so much riding on it.”

In previous years Sue, who with husband Steve has a daughter Holly, 25, has raised money for a range of charities including KIND. 

This event is to raise money for The Owen McVeigh Foundation which creates amazing memories and experiences for children with cancer, and she’s already been pledged more than £4,000.

She said:

“It’s a big swim but I feel ready,”

After Anglesey?

“I have always wanted to swim around the island of Manhattan in New York, it’s only 28 miles but it’s so iconic.  I was supposed to swim it a few years ago, but then Covid happened.

“So who knows, but that’s a goal.

“For now, I’m focused on Anglesey and praying for calm waters, a blue sky – and completing a ‘first’.”

Support Sue and raise money for The Owen McVeigh Foundation here.

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