Marathon Funds Raised For Isle of Wight Sea Pool By Local Man Ian

Isle of Wight resident Ian Wallace recently completed his first ever Marathon (2025 Southampton Marathon) and raised £800 for the Isle of Wight Sea Pool Project.

The IW Sea Pool is close to Ian’s heart, so when he signed up for the Southampton Marathon, he wanted to use this opportunity to raise funds for this important project.

Back in 2022, Ian was suffering from anxiety and depression that wasn’t being fixed by medication.

Ian works in mental health so was very aware of all the options he had available to him that might help improve his own mental health and had tried many things.

As an Islander Ian is so lucky to be surrounded by the sea and in October 2022 he decided to take the plunge and try cold water sea swimming.

Not a strong swimmer Ian wisely chose to do his first swim with other more experienced swimmers.

Ian said:

“My first swim was transformational, I felt a rush unlike anything I had ever experienced.

"Being in the sea was totally invigorating and energising.

"I couldn’t really swim much but felt safe because I was with experienced sea swimmers.

"That first time sea swimming had an immediate impact on my mental health and from then on I was hooked.”

Since that first swim, Ian has become a regular dipper and has found his mental health has improved immensely.

Without the help and community of sea swimming Ian says that he would never have committed to his first Marathon, now he has signed up for three more marathons (The Needles Marathon, The Isle of Wight Marathon and he plans to run the Walk the Wight

course).

Ian trained for 5 months for the Southampton Marathon having started running 2 years ago with couch to 5k on a treadmill. For the last two years Ian

has run regularly but not the huge distances of a marathon. One fateful day

during a visit to Southampton he saw an advert for the marathon and signed

up there and then. Now Ian has the marathon bug, in addition to signing up for

more marathons he has his heart set on competing in ultra marathons in the

future and much more fundraising.

“The Isle of Wight Sea Pool Project means so much to me. Despite regularly

swimming with Swim the Wight I am not a confident swimmer, but I know the

positive impact being in the sea has had on my own mental health. I want

everyone to be able to experience this safely. The accessibility of a tidal sea

pool on the island will bring so many benefits to the whole community. I want

this pool to happen.”

Ian’s Southampton Marathon Just Giving page is still available for more

donations at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ian-wallace-

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