A community-owned Bristol pool is running a charity event in the hope of raising £100,000 for roof repairs and improvements to the site. Friends of Jubilee Pool in Knowle are hosting a 24-hour ‘Jubilee-athon’ on October 5 and 6, which will see swimmers attempt to collectively swim the distance from Bristol to Paris.
Individual tickets are available for adults and children as well as teams. People are encouraged to buy a ticket and set up their own fundraising page to help reach the total.
In 2022, Jubilee Pool came into community ownership. Since then, the pool has received a number of grants to help with maintenance.
Trustee Rachel Heaton said: “We’re going big with £100K and that will hardly touch what needs to be done to the roof. We’ve done two of these swims before, one when the council were going to sell the pool where we made £30K and one where we raised £15K when the utility bills all went up.
“For one lady, the pool actually saved her life when her husband died. She trained as a lifeguard and gave all her money back to the pool. There’s two men who swam at the pool when they were eight years old and they still come here at 80. It means a lot to a lot of people.”
You can buy tickets for the event here.