A SWIMMING event has been held by Haberdashers’ Monmouth school in memory of former student Tom Walker who died in 2018 just days after a cancer diagnosis.

Family, friends and students gathered in memory of Tom Walker a former student at Haberdashers’ Monmouth school where they took to the water for a fundraising event.

The event took place from 5pm until 6pm, and in total the 181 swimmers notched up 14,403 lengths or 360km - the equivalent of swimming from Monmouth to Scotland.

“We might not quite have reached Edinburgh but we certainly got north of the border,” said one of the enthusiastic swimmers.

As well as those taking to water in Monmouth, swimmers joined the charity effort from France, Scotland and England taking part remotely and submitting their distances.

Swimmers of all abilities were welcome to take part and participate in the event, with each stroke bringing them one step closer to better treatments and helping to keep Tom’s legacy alive in the most meaningful way.

Several swimmers swam over 400 lengths covering a distance of 10km each with the the youngest swimmer being just four years old.

The swimmers have so far raised over £4, 000 and are hoping this will increase over the next few days.

The event was first held in 2019, Swim for Tom was created by Holly Walker, Katie Cameron and Lou Scott following Tom’s sudden death in June 2018 just one day after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia.

Since the first event they raised more than £40,000 for Cancer Research Wales which has supported a PhD scholarship in Tom’s name and vital research into both leukaemia and brain tumours.