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Ellie Grounds

Summer Ocean Swim 1km 2024

Week 3 - The Rain

After a week of miserable weather, surely the beach will be angry and raging, right? No, it's once again flat as a pancake. I feel like my luck will run out soon - this run of basically no waves can't last forever. It's grey and rainy and choppy out the back as we swim, but the water is a beautiful temperature and I have now made it three weeks without being dumped. Success! 

Week 2 - The Hangover

I wake up after a 14-hour wedding extravaganza (and that was me being the FIRST one to leave) celebrating my beautiful friends Reuben and Elee, and things are... no bueno. What I require is about five Hydralytes and several hours more of sleep and certainly not to be swimming 1km in the ocean, but once again I am confronted with my old friends, the consequences of my own actions. After each drill we stop, tread water and get feedback from our coaches and lifeguards, and let's just say our lifeguards' boards got a reaaaalll good leaning on. I survive and stumble back to bed.

Week 1 - The Fear

Wake up and nerves are so bad I almost don't go. Why have I done this to myself? I am terrified of waves and exposure therapy seems like BS at this point. Finally drag myself down to the beach and it's flat as a pancake. Conditions are perfect for the first ocean swim in three years. We swim, and we survive!

I hate waves, but I hate cancer more.

Hello friends

Once again I'm back doing the Can Too Foundation's fabulous ocean swimming training program, leading up to a bunch of 1km ocean swim goal races in January/February, and would love your support along the way. But Ellie, haven't you already learned how to ocean swim the last two times you did this program, I hear you ask? Yes, but living in the outback with a flat-as-a-pancake river does not do well to keep up your newfound confidence swimming in a body of water with crashing waves and deadly animals. The only thing that can get you out there is the yabbies that pinch your bum.

Those that know me well know how much I love the beach and how important it is to my mental wellbeing (we don't suffer a one-hour door-to-door commute to work for nothing). But despite how much I love the ocean, I HATE waves. They TERRIFY me. It's the curse of having grown up learning to swim at one of the chillest (but best) beaches in Australia (love you, Cylinder).

Yes, I hate waves, but I hate cancer more. I hate the stress it's caused my family, and the stress, heartbreak and despair it's caused so many of my friends' families. If people I love and the loved ones of other people I love could stop getting diagnosed with cancer, that would be fabulous, thanks. 

That's why I'd love you to support my swimming training with Can Too. The money raised will go towards funding grants for early career cancer researchers to hopefully stop this fucker (in all its various forms) once and for all. Any donation, great or small, is ridiculously appreciated and will help me when I'm hundreds of metres out in the ocean, trying not to have a panic attack and wishing I never did this in the first place.

Yours in splashes and bluebottle stings,

EG x 


Please Help Me
Reach My Goal

Raised

$825

My Goal

$1,360

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Thank you to my Sponsors

$200

Judy And John Grounds

Great to see you’re back into the swimming. Very proud of you.

$100

Matt

Good luck Ellie! I will stick to the safety of my pool but wish you all the best with the waves.

$100

Casey Owen

Just keep swimming! 🐟

$60

Eleesheva And Reuben Mayo-ray

Go, Ellie, go!!! Through hangovers and scary waves, you’re an inspiration.

$60

Ali M

$50

Grace Orders

Go Ellie, we are cheering for you! Xo Grace, Mike & Henry

$50

Nicky

Love your work Ellie!

$50

Amy And Tim Solomon

You’ve got this Ellie! Love your old roomies x

$50

Gav Coote

Go Ellie you legend!!

$50

Heidi Sheehan

Swim fast EG xx

$30

Seraijah Choi

Proud of you E.G.!!!

$20

Dan Prosser

You’re a shining star alumni from the Thomson River Ocean Swim Club ranks 🫡🙌

$5

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