Channel swim raises £185,000 for Ben
The Jaguar Land Rover Channel Swim Challenge has raised over £185,000 so far for Ben, the not-for-profit organisation that partners with the automotive industry.
Jeremy Hicks, managing director of Jaguar Land Rover UK, swam the English Channel, along with 13 of his colleagues in a two team relay on Thursday 24 August. The two teams set off at 10pm on Thursday and made it to French soil on Friday 25 August at around 2.30pm, resulting in a total time of around 16.5 hours.
As part of this, Jeremy also challenged his UK Retailer network to raise funds for Ben by taking part in their own swim challenges in local swimming pools, as well as the JLR Bike challenge and the JLR Run from Ben HQ to Dover which is taking place on 14 September.
The challenge is part of Ben’s second ever Industry Leader Challenge (ILC), which requires an industry leader to achieve a fundraising target over the course of a year, for Ben. Jeremy took up the ILC baton from Daksh Gupta, CEO of Marshall Motor Holdings plc, and chose the Jaguar Land Rover English Channel Swim Challenge as he felt it was something that would test him physically and mentally whilst also requiring an extraordinary team effort.
Jeremy Hicks, managing director of Jaguar Land Rover UK, said, ‘My colleagues and I who took part in the JLR Channel Swim are beyond grateful to all of our sponsors who have raised an incredible sum of money for a very worthy cause, our industry charity.
‘Swimming the channel was an extraordinary experience and one I won’t ever forget. I have to say that training for the big swim over the past nine months has changed my life and I’m definitely going to keep swimming.’
Jools Tait, business development director at Ben, said, ‘We are in absolute awe of Jeremy and all Jaguar Land Rover colleagues who took part in the English Channel swim. We’re also incredibly grateful to everyone at Jaguar Land Rover who took part in the other activities. We simply can’t thank you and all of the sponsors enough.’
