London, Sep 10: A British Indian schoolgirl who recently turned 16 has made history as one of the youngest to cross the notoriously choppy English Channel to raise funds for a charity fighting against childhood hunger across India and the UK.
Prisha Tapre, a pupil at Bushey Meads School in north London, was motivated by a family discussion about the English Channel to take on the challenge when she was just 12.
After four years of training, she went on to complete the 34-kilometre swim from the coast of Dover in England to Cap Gris Nez in France last week in 11 hours and 48 minutes.
“It was quite choppy at the start, but when the sun started to rise, I knew that the worst bit was done with,” said Tapre, reliving her mission in an interview from her home at Watford in Hertfordshire.
“It’s always the first two hours that are the hardest part of the swim because it’s about getting your mind around the fact that this is where you’re going to be for the next few hours. I was actually beginning to get quite sleepy and my eyes were about to shut, but then the sun started to come up and the sleep went away. The weather conditions were amazing, really still; the best I could have asked for,” she said.
The swimming enthusiast, who describes the lake near her home as her “calm place”, used lots of meditative techniques and even felt a strange bond with the jellyfish that stung her along the way.
“The jellyfish stings were probably my favourite bit because it’s just an extra feeling. After swimming for like nine hours, you’re in a sort of trance. But then the jellyfish stings kind of reminded me that I’m actually alive. I know it sounds odd, but it was something to tick off my bucket list,” she shared.
As for thoughts of giving up during the course of such a gruelling solo swim or any “rough patches”, she overcame them with a single-minded focus on her goal as she did not want to let down her family, her support crew and herself. (PTI)
