Your full support, please chums, for Sir John Royden of JM Finn, who will bravely attempt to become the eighth person ever to swim the 43 miles of Lake Geneva.
Sir John is making the swim for charity in memory of his sister, Emma, who died of a brain tumour at just 32.
You can go along and support him on 25 June, when he does a trial swim at the Docklands Yacht Club in London, hosted by Finns.
I shall personally attend, if only for the champagne cocktails and hors d’oeurves because there is no way I would get in the Thames. But I will dig deep for his charity.
The admirable Sir John has already raised £234,000 for the Brain Tumour Charity, with commitments for a further £250,000.
This remarkable 56-year-old has already been in hard training for his feat planned for next month, immersing himself in icy waters regularly for the last several months.
He is no stranger to open water swimming, and swam across the English Channel in 1993 after two earlier failed attempts.
If he conquers the lake, he will be the oldest person to do so by 14 years.
Amazingly, he will swim all day and through the night for 36 hours with no stopping for rest from the time he sets off from Chillon Castle, a notorious prison in the past, to reaching the shoreline at Geneva.
John, who is head of research at Finns, says that the idea came to him after recently losing another close friend and work colleague, Geordie Kidston, who earlier held the research role. So, the epic swim will celebrate both his late colleague as well as sister Emma.
The temperature of the water in Lake Geneva is likely to be warmer than the 12C John's used to, so he's confident he has what it takes to complete the swim.
Nonetheless, “more people have stepped on the Moon than completed a solo swim of Lake Geneva without stopping,” he remarks.
He will swim under the rules of the Lake Geneva Swimming Association, which sets strict guideline to promote the spirit of open water swimming based on standards set by Captain Matthew Webb's first Channel crossing in 1875.
John hopes to start his swim on 26 July, depending on weather, and is looking for millpond conditions.
Those who know John say he is a buccaneering character.
Before joining Finns in 2011, he was a merchant adventurer which took him to Sweden, Dubai, Indonesia and India where he was involved with derivatives broking, property and estate agencies as well as corporate finance consulting.
Apart from the rigours of the swim, there’s one patch of rough water ahead – persuading the Swiss government to ease its lockdown regime so that John can get quickly back to JM Finn in London to do his day job.
To follow John’s training and swim, which takes place in July, or to support his fundraising, visit his Justgiving page, search for “John’s mad” on social media, or visit royden.com.
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