Ana at Great North Swim – a success story

Ana is an example for us – she makes us believe that it is possible to overcome our limits, especially if we are motivated by a social cause. Ana lives in the UK, she is passionate about tourism and works in the field, but living there made her get involved with social causes. This is how she became an enthusiastic supporter of the Sense International from UK and started to raise funds from her friends and her community for the projects developed in Romania.

At the beginning she was a mountain guide for UK people coming to the Romanian mountains in order to raise money for different projects developed by the foundation and this made her realize that each person could get involved into social causes above its day to day responsibilities.

From this to accept the challenge to swim 5 kilometres into a lake nearby London, within the event Great North Swim, was just a one-step! She was really motivated so what remained was to get trained for the event!

Just 3 weeks before the event, she went to the swimming pool, where her trainer Laura told her that ” you won’t like this, but you’ll have to swim continuously for 1 hour; technique can help you, but you need to raise your endurance.” Ana says that “it was so hard, I wanted to quit on the spot, but I got into the pool and swam. Laura sat on the side and counted my laps, I’ve done 2km. The next week I swam every day at my local pool, I found the time and did it. Every lap I could see Laura on the side of the pool saying ‘keep going, stretch your arms and focus on your breathing”.

There is a huge difference from swimming in a pool than in a lake. Ana remembers that “it was so different! For start, not seeing the bottom was scary. Then there was no end of the pool to turn and take a bigger breath. The distances from one buoy to the next were bigger and there were less people in the water. But lakes are beautiful and by the end of my first lap, 400m, I really enjoyed it”.

The day of the event was full of emotions, Ana felt nervous and excited at the same time. The message she got from a friend helped her to focus on what she has to do:” no matter the result, for the training you put into this, you are amazing to me”.

She managed to finish the race within 2 hours and 20 minutes – she was not the first and not the last.

Her story is an inspiration to us and shows that when you combine one activity to a social good, there is no way you won’t succeed!

We hope that we managed to transmit you this inspiration and if you wish to get involved you can support Ana with a donation, here –https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/amydulac

The funds raised will support young people with deafblindness in Romania on their path towards an independent life.