Open water swimmer Sue Derbyshire has completed her one-year-365-swims challenge for respected Nelson Mandela Bay businessman and environmentalist Mark Rushmere, who is recovering from a serious car accident. The challenge started as an outreach to Derbyshire’s late husband Dennis. However, a month and a half into it, when she learnt that her friend Mark had been in an accident, she changed course.
“Dennis would be forever in my heart but I needed to anchor myself in the present and fight for a friend in the living world, who could benefit from my efforts.” In a Friendly City testament to community spirit and resilience, she completed the challenge on December 31. Derbyshire said she knew Rushmere, 60, as co-owner of the Kariega Game Reserve and a former SA cricketer from school at Woodridge College. “Years later, after I started ocean swimming, I was doing each one for Dennis, and Mark and his mate Steve de Beer used to join me on Sundays.
“Then one day in mid-February last year they didn’t arrive and I learnt Mark had been in a bad car accident, and he was paralysed. “I wanted to show how much we loved him and believed in him, so I refocused my challenge to where I would do a swim every day of the year for him.” The 53-year-old admitted that, having begun her original programme on January 21 2025, by mid-winter things were tough. “The water temperature was in the low teens, I got a hole in my eardrum and my skin was in a mess from all the salt.
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