What is the Rotary MK Swimathon?

• It’s an annual fun day that’s raised over half a million pounds for local charities since 1994.
• Each year, between 7 and 9 local charities are identified to benefit from the Swimathon.
• 22 February 2025 will be Rotary MK’s 31st Swimathon
• It’s free to enter and held at Wolverton Pool.
• 50+ teams of six swim on a relay basis for 55 minutes in a 25-metre pool.
• No special swimming ability is needed.
• Children of any age are welcome but must have parental permission.
• There is also a special event for swimmers needing assistance, which will take place at the Middleton Pool in Newport Pagnell on 8 March. This also collects sponsorship for the chosen charities.

The 2025 Charities

Al’s Pals  

This Milton Keynes-based charity provides emotional support for cancer patients and their families in hospital and at home. They are entering the Swimathon to raise funds to recruit and train more volunteers to enable them to continue to grow their home service and to enable this service, which has grown over 150% this past year, to run as efficiently as possible.

Being Helper  

The UK is fortunate to have nation-wide ambulance services for medical emergencies. In India, poorer areas rely on voluntary ambulance services. In the deprived district of Bihar in north-east India, the charity Being Helper runs a 24-hour road ambulance service but needs further resources. Rotary MK has worked with them in the past and is now raising money to purchase a fully-equipped £9000 ambulance for them.

Camphill

This is a community of over 70 adults with learning disabilities who live, work, celebrate and learn together. Residents are supported through a range of creative and environmental activities within their theatre, ceramics studio, weavery, vegetarian café, allotments, and upcycling facility. The community is growing and over the next 5 years will offer accessible accommodation to an additional 60 individuals. The Swimathon will help to raise £8,000 towards the cost of creating accessible wet rooms for individuals whose physical abilities restrict mobility. 

Citizens Advice MK

Since 1972, Citizens Advice MK has helped almost 500,000 local people to solve over 2.5 million problems. 2025’s Swimathon funds will help them to overhaul, redesign and relaunch their local website, to provide advice and guidance to even more people in the city. The aim is to improve the website’s accessibility to make it easier for people with sensory loss or other impairments to use it. Also, some of the money will go towards the running costs of their video call service, which is accessible through the website.

MK Safety Centre (Hazard Alley)

This is the region’s leading safety education charity. Hazard Alley, its education centre in Kiln Farm, provides life-saving safety education to thousands of children, young people and adults every year. Money raised during the 2025 Swimathon will help to refurbish and modernise the Water Safety scenario, which is in great need of an upgrade. This scenario ensures everyone stays safe in and around water, ultimately helping to save lives.

Read Easy MK

This is the Milton Keynes branch of a national registered charity which engages volunteers to teach adults to read. Trained volunteers are allocated to individuals, typically for 2 one-hour sessions per week, which can run for as long as needed. Currently, a single organiser administers 40 volunteers. Demand is high and the aim will be to raise funds from the Swimathon to identify and train a second organiser to double the number of teachers and thus of learners.

Sieve MK Gateway

SMK’s objective is to address the problem of educational underachievement among young people. For the past decade, it has offered accessible and cost-effective educational programmes, tuition and exam opportunities within Milton Keynes. Its vision is to develop a purpose-built centre. It has now acquired land in the Heelands area, and taking part in the Swimathon will contribute to raising the funds to create this dream environment. The centre will provide space for tuition and exams, with training suites, meeting rooms, studio space, a hall for hire and a community café.

Willen Hospice

The hospice provides free expert care and support for local people with a life-limiting illness and their loved ones. Most patients are cared for in their own home, enabling them to live well until they die, for however long that may be. The hospice’s community team, Willen at Home, is the only service of its kind in Milton Keynes, but it receives no NHS funding and is entirely funded by charitable donations. Rotary Swimathon fundraising will help pay for this vital service, which made 5,196 patient home visits last year.

YMCA Milton Keynes

This is the only local charity that supports young people who are at risk of homelessness. It started in 1981 and since then has helped more than 10,000 local young people, providing both a home and practical, emotional and employment support. Funds from the Swimathon will be used to create welcome packs containing necessities such as toiletries and bedding for a young person when they first arrive, as well as to fund activities to build confidence, connect with others and make friendships.

Raising the money

Each swimmer collects sponsorship from family, friends, work colleagues, corporate donations, etc. by:

• Online sponsorship via Just Giving, which claims 25% Gift Aid automatically for us on all eligible donations, and/or
• Using Rotary MK’s sponsorship form and bringing the money to the event or paying it into Rotary MK’s Swimathon bank account. The Club claims Gift Aid from HMRC.

Using Just Giving

Go to: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/mkswimathon25

Making a donation?

• Click on the blue ‘Give now’ button.
• If you are already a Just Giving user, log in. If you are not, sign up.

Please make sure that you mention which team  and/or individual swimmer you are sponsoring. Then, when MK Rotary Club collects the information from Just Giving’s report, we will be able to calculate how much each team has raised. Without that information, we won’t be able to credit your team.

Swimming as a team or individual swimmer?

You can set up your own page with a unique link. This will save you from collecting in the money yourself, give you the opportunity to reach out on social media, and ensure the donations come straight to us in the name of your team. They will automatically be credited to your team’s total sponsorship.

• Click on the orange ‘Start fundraising’ button.
• If you have not used Just Giving before you need to register. If you have not, you’ll have to log in.
• Answer NO to ‘Are you fundraising in memory of someone?’
• Click ‘I’m taking part in an event’.
• Key in ‘Rotary MK Swimathon 2025’.
• Set your target.
• Personalise your page with your team’s name and details.
• Add your own picture or contact info@rotarymk.org for the Rotary MK Swimathon 2025 official logo.
• Launch your page and try it out.

Good luck!

Sponsorship form

You can print off as many copies as you wish of the sponsorship form below. Each swimmer should use a separate form (or more than one form, numbering the sheets in the top right corner). It’s important to fill in the team name and the swimmer’s name and number. Please make sure that every sponsor who pays income tax fills in their house number and post code and circles “Yes” under “Eligible for gift aid”. Without this information, we cannot claim gift aid, which adds 25% to a donation.

• The 2025 Rotary Swimathon will be held on Saturday, 22 February at Wolverton Swimming and Fitness Centre, Addington Avenue, Wolverton, MK12 5GH.
• Each swimmer should be able to swim 50 metres. The length of the pool is 25 metres and although most swimmers only swim one length at a time, the water gets quite choppy.
• Please arrive at the pool 20 minutes before your swim time. Meet together in the foyer and if you are using sponsorship forms hand them over to your team captain.
• Team captains register their teams at the Swimathon reception desk and hand in all sponsorship forms. If any swimmer has a medical condition that needs reporting (e.g. epilepsy) please inform the receptionist.
• Team captains will be issued with a lane card which is handed to the pool manager at the pool entrance.
• Only swimmers and designated helpers can enter the pool area unless a child under 8 is swimming, in which case a parent/carer needs to accompany them in the pool. Spectators – including non-swimming team captains – please use the spectator area.
• When using the changing rooms, Wolverton pool recommend that you leave valuable belongings in the lockers provided. A £1 coin is required to operate the locker (refundable when the locker is emptied). A wristband with key is then released. Non-valuable clothing in a suitable bag can be brought to the poolside.
• After changing, all swimmers should assemble poolside and report to the pool manager’s desk. The team captain gives the lane card to the pool manager and decides at which end swimmers should stand and who swims first. The lanes will be clearly identified.
• In the interest of safety, all swimmers and spectators are asked to follow the Wolverton pool staff’s instructions. The pool manager and Swimathon stewards are also responsible for activities in the pool area and we ask that you please follow their instructions also.
• Free bottled water will be available at reception and poolside
• Refreshments are available adjacent to the spectator areas. It is not recommended to drink alcohol or take any drugs before swimming.
• A quick changeover is essential. Please help by leaving the pool area promptly after your swim, taking all your possessions with you.
• After the swim, team captains should collect a pack from the reception desk, which will contain swimmers’ returned sponsorship forms and certificates endorsing the numbers of lanes swum.

• No Rotarian receives any payment for their involvement in the Swimathon.
• No more than 5% of the sponsorship total is used to cover the major costs to run the Swimathon, such as trophies, certificates, medals, stationery and Just Giving membership.
• About 5% of the sponsorship total is transferred to Rotary MK’s charity fund to be used throughout the year to provide many small donations to local charities.
• About 90% is divided between the Milton Keynes charities selected for the year as listed on the sponsorship form. The size of the allocation to each charity is based upon the:            
  • Total sponsorship available                                                     
  • Sponsorship raised by the charity                                                        
  • Number of sponsored swimmers entered by the charity            
  • Amount required for the project the charity wishes to undertake           
  • Amount of additional support the charity provides on Swimathon day (e.g. lane clicking).

A charity will always receive in excess of the total sponsorship raised by their own teams.