Scott Teirney swims 100 miles to raise money for Samantha Smith

Scott Teirney swimming to raise funds for Samantha Smith

Scott Teirney has completed the impressive feat of swimming 100 miles in just seven weeks and two days in aid of the Save Samantha fund.

The Rochdale welder completed the distance on Wednesday 1 November and believes he has raised over £1,000 through paper sponsorship forms. If Scott can cover an additional 50 miles before Friday 15 December, he stands to double a lot of the money already raised as some sponsors have promised to double their donations.

Scott, who has known Samantha for about 10 years, completed a similar challenge last year where he swam the 22 mile-length of the English Channel and in 12 weeks at Oulder Hill Leisure Complex, and had planned to undertake the challenge again.

Scott said: “I thought I would not be able to do it. I have had no life but put 100% effort in to do it as quickly as possible.”

He has been swimming in the mornings and evenings most days, sometimes visiting the pool three times in one day to ensure he reached his target and has also lost three stone in just eight weeks.

He continued: “I had planned to do the Aspire Channel swim again this year, but I wanted to do something further. I normally swim 10 miles a week, so 100 in 12 weeks gave me a bit of leeway. As I have known Sam for so long, I decided to raise money for her to get her back to America.”

At the time of publication, father-of-one Scott had covered 110.74 miles using breaststroke, and was ranked fourth in the UK of 5,535 swimmers taking on the Aspire Challenge, which aims to raise money for those paralysed by spinal injury by swimming the equivalent distance of the English Channel.

The Aspire Challenge officially ends on 11 December, but Scott, who has battled his own spinal injury, has decided to extend his deadline to the end of the week if he hasn’t completed 150 miles by then.

He added: “I want to raise as much as I can. Having an incentive like this has kept me going as I have never done anything like this before, but I have loved every minute of it. I would like to credit the staff at Oulder Hill and thanks to all those who sponsored me.”

Samantha said: "“I’m so thankful to Scott, and I’m so, so grateful that people are spending their precious time to support my cause, plus the dedication put into events and challenges like Scott’s is incredibly heartwarming.”

The Save Samantha appeal was set up earlier this year to help mother-of-two Samantha Smith from Smithy Bridge raise an urgently-needed £150,000 towards lifesaving neurosurgery.

Rochdale Online has closely followed Samantha’s journey since April, when we broke the news of her desperate race to raise £150,000 for lifesaving neurosurgery after her brain and spinal cord were being crushed under the weight of her own skull.

Following two operations in Washington with a leading surgeon over the summer, psychotherapist Samantha, 31, revealed the surgeries failed to stop her neck from dislocating, and she now requires a third operation which will further restrict her movement, estimated to cost in the region of £100,000.

This is on top of a further £50,000 to cover the costs of the most recent operation, as unlike the UK, the costs of surgery stateside means a bill of tens of thousands of dollars is racked up.

To sponsor Scott, visit:

https://www.youcaring.com/samanthasmith-788861