Four students from St John’s College, Cambridge, have undertaken an extraordinary fundraising challenge, punting over 200 miles in 12 days from Oxford to Cambridge to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society.
The participants – Charlie Swinfen, Stefan Narinian, Beth Erskine, and Ryan Vowles – covered an average of 19 miles a day in their bid to complete the endurance challenge.
Their punting effort has attracted considerable media coverage. The four have been interviewed by BBC Oxford, BBC Cambridgeshire, and ITV News Anglia. Cherwell interviewed the intrepid group midway through their journey.
How did they come up with such an unusual fundraising initiative? “Some students at St John’s did it in 2010, and we thought it was the craziest thing ever,” one told me. “We settled on doing it for the Alzheimer’s Society as a couple of members of the group have family affected by it, and also September is World Alzheimer’s Month.”
The group were also keen to emphasise the connections between their college and Alzheimer’s research. St John’s College and the Alzheimer’s Society share the forget-me-not as a symbol. The motto of the College’s founder, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was “Remember me often”, giving rise to the forget-me-not as a college flower. The College’s former Master, Sir Christopher Dobson, provides a further link between college and charity: Dobson was credited with research that shed light on the likely cause of Alzheimer’s.
“We didn’t have any experience with canals or houseboating,” one says. “Initially, being naive, we pieced together the blog of the students from 2010 to figure out a general route. But in hindsight, using canal planning apps, we realised that there’s only one decent route to get from Oxford to Cambridge.”
Surprisingly, the four did minimal physical preparation for the challenge they had set themselves. Instead, the emphasis was on logistical preparation: figuring out where to stay and securing insurance. The punt they used was built by Alex Ramsey, also from their college.
The most direct puntable waterway connection between the two universities takes a route through Northampton, Peterborough, and Ely. The group began their journey northwards on the Oxford Canal, navigating a maze of locks, tunnels, canals, and rivers before eventually joining the River Cam and arriving back at St John’s College.
“The first few days were really nice. The canals around Oxford were gorgeous,” one says.
Three of the former students who completed the punting challenge in 2010 also came to visit them for a picnic along the route.
Yet by the halfway point of their journey, on the canal from Northampton to Peterborough, the four admitted that the hours of punting each day were beginning to take their toll, though they stressed that the experience was still enjoyable.
I ask about the differences between their effort and that of the students in 2010. They point out that they are travelling to Cambridge rather than from it, meaning they are going in the opposite direction to their predecessors. “The droughts this summer mean there are lots of sections where we’ve had to lift the punt to get around closures,” one adds.
The day before we speak, the four had braved one of the most challenging – and perilous – parts of their journey: the Braunston Tunnel, a mile-long, unlit tunnel dating from the 19th century.
“There are seven locks in quick succession on both sides, so you are basically not allowed to go through the tunnel in a canoe or punt,” one tells me. “So we needed to find someone with a motorboat or houseboat to tow us through.” Eventually, after hours of waiting, a group agreed to tow them through the tunnel.
More peril was still to come for the four. The day after we spoke, they were due to pass through a large water-management complex north of Cambridge, the Denver Sluice. “We’ll need to do it at the right time of day so the dam doesn’t drag us out to sea,” one told me.
The group emphasised their appreciation for all of their supporters – old friends and new acquaintances alike. “The people we meet along the way are so lovely – they are very moved by what we are doing, and some have had family members affected by Alzheimer’s,” one tells me. “Meeting them keeps us going, even when it’s pretty bleak.”
“We really enjoy reading the comments that come through with the donations. They make us feel like this is worth doing,” another adds, as our interview draws to a close.
The four arrived at their final destination, St John’s College, at approximately midday on Sunday 4 October. They were greeted by a crowd of friends and family as they passed under the Bridge of Sighs.
In an interview with BBC Oxfordshire, they admitted that they were “pretty knackered” but were still fuelled by adrenaline.
The group initially aimed to raise £5,000, but have since blown past that target. At the time of writing, they had raised over £10,000 for a cause rooted in college history.
“We are delighted to have made it back to St John’s and to have raised these funds for such an important charity,” they told Cherwell.
