Creative Writing student’s 33km swim for non-profit fundraiser
By: Communications
A first-year Creative Writing MA student is currently swimming the width of the English Channel to fundraise for a non-profit dedicated to ending sexual violence.
Across April and May 2024, Georgia Horsell, a first-year student on the part-time Crime Fiction Creative Writing MA, will be swimming 33km across two months to raise money for This Ends Now: the first protest-lobby non-profit organisation dedicated to exposing patriarchy and ending sexual violence.
Georgia will be swimming the width of the Channel, which is 33km wide, in a 16m long swimming pool in Tetbury. Aiming to swim 2063 lengths in 61 days, she will be averaging 34 lengths every day across the two months.
She said: “This Ends Now is a non-profit that I volunteer for – it is entirely volunteer run, and we work hard to change the discourse around male violence against women and girls. Any money you are kind enough to donate to support this challenge will go directly to the organisation.”
At present, Georgia’s fundraiser has raised more than £870 of her £1,000 goal.
“On a personal note,” Georgia continues, “I have never seen a plus size person do a sporting challenge like this on social media. I rarely see content of plus size people at the gym; I know they work out just as I do, but fitness content is dominated by slim people, and I think this supports the fatphobic idea that plus-size people are lazy.
“I’ve had a back problem since I was 12 years old, which meant I couldn’t do much PE at school, and I have genuinely no idea what my limits are. I am constantly surprised by what I can do in the gym because the fatphobic association with weight and laziness is one I have internalised. Society has told me I should not be able to exercise as a plus size person, but I want to prove them wrong, and this 33km swim is one of the ways I will do that.”
Georgia also spoke about her shared degree pathway with her father: “My dad also studied at UEA, firstly in 1984-87, and then he was actually on the first intake of the MA I am currently studying in Crime Fiction Creative Writing. That means we are the first multi-generational for that degree – plus, we're both competing to write crime novels!”