Thursday 3 March 19:00 - 22:00

The Royal Automobile Club
89 Pall Mall
London
SW1Y 5HS

Tickets Unavailable
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Making a Splash - Book Launch

Charity & Causes

On Thursday 3rd March 2021, we will be celebrating the launch of 'Making a Splash' by Leah Chowdhry.

On 7th July 2018, Leah Chowdhry completed the amazing feat of swimming the English Channel from Dover to France, taking 14 hours and 44 mins. What makes this more remarkable is that Leah was only 26 at the time and is one of the first British Asian women to do this challenge. Only 1497 swimmers have completed a solo swim; in fact, more people have climbed Mount Everest. She has defied odds on grounds of gender, age and ethnicity. Most successful swimmers are male, only 36.8% are female, and the average age is 35.

She raised a phenomenal amount of £156,000 and donated £100,000 to Cancer Research with the balance going to another UK registered charity.

Her efforts have received many accolades such as being presented with the British Citizenship medal and Most Inspiring Young person and 21st century Icon award; most recently she has been offered the position of Cancer Research UK Ambassador. Leah said ‘I consider this a huge honour and I am humbled that I have been asked to take on this role for a such a worthwhile, world renowned charity.’

Sue Tiplady, Relationship Manager, Cancer Research UK

We congratulate Leah Chowdhry on being most recently appointed Volunteer Campaign Ambassador at Cancer Research UK. Campaign Ambassadors save lives by persuading politicians to support better cancer policies. As a young Asian woman Leah will also be helping Cancer Research UK tackle cancer inequalities and reach our ambition of beating cancer, for everyone.”

Leah’s father was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) in 2017. It’s a condition that affected nearly 900,000 people globally in 2015 and resulted in around 60,000 deaths. Overall, around a quarter of people with CLL will live at least five years after diagnosis. Though an incurable condition, treatment is constantly advancing. Leah’s aim is to help raise funds to ensure research into this condition is improved and hopefully her father, and others, will be cured.

Leah will continue to raise further funds for Cancer Research by publishing a children’s book called ‘Making a Splash’ this will promote children to undertake charity work.

Beyond her personal achievements and fundraising, Leah said ‘I want my experience of the swim to inspire and encourage others, in particular young people from both privileged and under privileged backgrounds to do two things:

‘Firstly, to change’ I Can’t’ to ‘I Can’ mindset to achieve anything they want to achieve in life.

Secondly, to motivate young people to serve others as this is the most fulfilling thing in life.

Leah shared ‘Every two minutes someone is diagnosed with cancer and it will affect most of us in some way. There is nothing more fulfilling in life than helping CRUK find a cure to beat cancer; I urge others in our community to do the same.’

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