River Tweed Swim 2023

River Tweed Swim For My Name’5 Doddie Foundation!

I’ve supported DoddieAid and regularly donated to the Foundation but felt there was something else I could do to help publicise and raise funds for research to find a cure for MND. Last year I started swimming again, after a 50 year break, in an attempt to help lower my cholesterol level and improve my overall fitness. This was the spark that resulted in tackling the DoddieAid Challenge. The idea of swimming the length of The River Tweed (156 km), in our local pool at Berwick would be a real test. It will mean I need to swim about 3,750 meters every day of the DoddieAid Challenge. It also seemed appropriate because Doddie was a ‘Borderer’, and the Tweed runs through the border country where he lived and played a lot of his rugby. Many of the rugby club grounds in the borders are within a Gavin Hastings drop kick of the River Tweed, especially Melrose RFC! To raise the bar a little higher, and capture the imagination of other people, I decided to swim the last 7,400 meters from the Border at West Ord to the estuary at Berwick Pier in August this year, when the water temperature is a little warmer than January! Hopefully this will encourage people and businesses to sponsor me or donate to the Foundation. You can do so by visiting this page.

River Tweed Swim Timetable 2023

Friday 25th August: 10.15am swim from West Ord to East Ord (3,000m/ 1.25 hours).
Saturday 26 th August: 11.15am swim from East Ord to Berwick
Amateur Rowing Club (3,000m/ 1.25 hour).

Sunday 27th August: 12.15pm swim from Rowing Club to Berwick
Pier (1,400m/ 40 mins).
Starting times are approximate due to tidal conditions.

Good viewing points would be: West Ord Haugh, By-Pass Bridge, The
New Road, The New Bridge and Old Bridge, Berwick Quayside and
Berwick Pier (Crab Water).

River Tweed