Crawley woman takes on 10 kilometre swim in aid of cancer charity

Claire Wildman, 42, from West Green, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013. Her son was seven months old at the time.

Soon after Claire’s diagnosis, she went through chemotherapy followed by a double mastectomy. She then started taking Tamoxifen and had one year on the drug, Herceptin. After this, Claire went through several years of reconstruction surgery.

Claire said: “I was due to be on Tamoxifen for five years but my oncologist shared details of medical studies showing people who stayed on it for ten years reduced their risk of Cancer returning by 25 per cent. I decided to take those odds. A decade on a drug which can have quite a few side effects felt like an insurmountable task.

“There have definitely been many times I didn't think I would see this upcoming landmark in my life. Like I do in other aspects of life, I had to break that ten years down to more manageable chunks. The first was to be alive to see my boy start school.”

At the end of 2022, Claire’s cancer team confirmed that once she finished ten years on Tamoxifen in June 2023, that was her done and dusted with cancer medication.

Claire continues: “I was at a work event in October 2022 and one of our leaders shared her traumatic loss of her beautiful baby boy to cancer. The strength she shared talking about her boy and keeping his ‘memory alive for good’ was overwhelming. Once I fought back the tears and reflected with my family on her story, we agreed that I needed something positive to focus on when coming off Tamoxifen rather than letting fear win. Hence my plan is to do a huge swim for the Olive Tree charity.

“The Olive Tree charity is based in Crawley Hospital. The special people and volunteers who work there were a huge part of keeping me sane during my illness. They helped me with counselling plus various treatments to help me cope with the many side effects of cancer treatment and surgery. The charity is a little haven of kindness and love. I really want to fundraise a pile of money for them to help others that are facing or will face cancer in the future.

“So, I'm going to train my butt off and work up to swimming 10km in one day in June 2023. That is equivalent to 400 lengths of a 25-metre pool. June 2023 will be 10 years since my double mastectomy and when I stopped taking Tamoxifen.

“I'm really grateful to my local Nuffield gym which has agreed I can have a swim lane for a few hours to complete my fundraising challenge.

“Life is hard at the moment and the cost of living challenge is so hard. Every penny counts, any donation you can share would be hugely appreciated and go to help a truly wonderful charity.

"My husband Joe has been a huge pillar of love and support for me and our son Max through everything.

“Anything I raise personally will be match funded up to £5k by my wonderful employer, Legal & General.”

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If you would like to donate money to Claire’s fundraising challenge, please see her JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/claire-wildman1?utm_source=copyLink&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=claire-wildman1&utm_campaign=pfp-share&utm_term=d79e5e9b806a4028af684abcc00342d2