Sunday 20th March was a beautiful day. With blue skies, plenty of sunshine and flat water Westernport Bay looked beautiful. Mandy started her swim at 10am from Rhyll Inlet and we all estimated she would finish at 2.30pm on Sunday. It turns out the tide was seriously in Mandy’s favour and she was swimming too fast, so she had to slow it down so as not to get to San Remo too early.
I was with a number of other people on the Kasey Lee following Mandy as she swam underneath the bridge. With the 80’s and 90’s blasting from the now familiar Swim for Life boat and Mandy powering towards the finish line the atmosphere could not have been better. It was around this time that the Channel 7 helicopter showed up to get some footage for the news that night.
As Mandy passed the finish line at San Remo all of her supporters were clapping, beaming and yelling. The amount of support that locals and people from all over Victoria have given Mandy has been fantastic.
After jumping out of the cage, giving medals to all of the volunteers who had helped her along the way Mandy gave interviews to the TV crews and people from the local paper.
After all was said and done Mandy went home and returned to normal life preparing for university on Tuesday and nationals in a few weeks. She is the same as each of us with our day-to-day routines and challenges. The difference is that Mandy chose to make a difference. She completed an amazing feat on Sunday and became a local hero.
So please do what you can to support Swim for Life and help Phillip Island get a 24 hour medical clinic.
