Pensioner raises money for Barnardos with challenge to open water swim at 70 different locations for 70th birthday

This was not on the wish-list for one West Yorkshire pensioner who took on quite a challenge as she stepped into her 70th year.

Former teacher, Anita Walker, has been a keen open water swimmer since she was a child and with it being a big part of her life and daily routine - it was the obvious thing to celebrate her big day.

So, she invited 70 swimmers to join her at her regular swimming spot, just half a mile from her home in Otley - and on the day she wasn’t even the oldest with her friend, who is almost 80, taking the plunge too. The youngest swimmer wasn’t even 30.

This was the culmination of a year long swimming diary that had taken Ms Walker to 70 open water swimming spots all around the country and she was raising money for Barnardos while she was doing it.

Ms Walker said: “I thought ‘what could I do for my 70th year’. Seventy swims I could easily achieve so thought 70 different locations. It made me find different places to swim and it has been brilliant, I planned a trip and got people to come with me.

However, her favourite was by far the discovery of the River Ure which Ms Walker has been drawn back to.

She said: “That is the most beautiful river that I have ever been to. I knew nothing about it and asked people in the swimming community where to go and they suggested Ripon. That was a real revelation. As we went further along it was the most soft gentle flow, level and sheltered - I will most definitely go back there.”

Rain and even snow is hard pressed to put her off and, having been an outdoor swimmer for years she is experienced and aware of the danger as much as the pleasure and the benefits. She admits she has “frightened herself” on a few occasions.

She will never sea swim alone and at each new river or lake location studies the flow of the water before she gets in and where to get out.

“I have been doing it pretty much all my life, I am not a new convert to it. I always swam outdoors when I was a kid and carried on. When my kids were little, I took them to rivers rather than pools and always swam in the sea.

“I have a propensity to water I think and have always found myself near rivers and streams even if not swimming. I saw my first dragon fly this week while swimming and saw kingfishers. To be outdoors and in nature is just fantastic, it is so green and peaceful. There is the quality of the water that changes with every light and every day.

“You don’t have to be fit, beautiful, you don’t have to be diving in, you get in and enjoy the water.

“It kept me sane during lockdown, I could go to the river and I could swim and cool off. I swim every day, if I don’t I get ratty, I need to be in the water.”

Ms Walker chose Barnardos because of the help the charity had given her mother. She had been the eldest of six children and at the age of eight was taken into care after her mother was taken into mental health care and her father was in prison. The charity took the three girls and housed and educated them. Towards the end of her life she spoke about her brothers and Barnardos found the youngest brother and arranged for them to meet before Ms Walker’s mother died.

“That was quite something”, she said. “She met him a couple of times before she died and I have maintained contact with him. They do completely different work now and work with vulnerable people but you don’t see them on the high street and you don’t hear that much about them.”

To date, Ms Walker has raised more than £900 and her challenge this year is to learn to dive.