Richard Royal's News

Team Work: Qualifying, training and preparing for an English Channel Relay Swim

Published in Outdoor Swimmer Magazine, July 2016 After flippantly agreeing to join a teammate on an English Channel relay swim – organised by Aspire, the UK’s leading spinal injury charity – I have spent the last six months going through the processes and preparations for this challenging event. Having recently returned from the first acclimatisation weekend in Dover, I hope I can provide some advice to any readers considering taking part in future. The first thing I’d say to

Royal supports charity’s call for better mental health provision

Richard Royal, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Hartlepool, has backed calls for better provision of support for local people in mental health crisis. Mind, the mental health charity, is calling for local services to deliver on their promise to improve the support for people who are suicidal, self-harming or in psychosis. Royal is a former Trustee of Mind and a mental health campaigner who has raised over £3,000 for mental health charities through sponsored swims in r

Royal Escapes Alcatraz for Young Minds

*Featured in Young Minds Magazine* A brave swimmer has taken part in an audacious escape attempt from one of the world’s most notorious prisons to raise money for YoungMinds. Richard Royal swam from Alcatraz Island, home to the ‘inescapable’ famous former federal prison, to the San Francisco mainland. The iconic event is a 2.5k (1.5 miles or 100 continuous lengths of a standard pool) swim in the rough waters which can reach lows of 12c and in parts is over 100 metres deep. Al

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