12 October 2025
Ready to make a big splash?
Plenty of time to get ready for next year
The charities supported this year
The money raised this year will be shared between a number of local charities supported by Woking Rotary Club including, amongst others, Woking & Sam Beare Hospices, Samber-RDA, GASP Motor Project and Woking Youth Theatre.
“This annual event is in its 16th year and has raised over £220,000 for local charities”
Terry Smith
Since its inception, the Rotary Woking Swimathon has captured the hearts and minds of locals, drawing participants from across the region eager to do their part for charity. Typically we have over 300 swimmers entering, collectively covering a staggering distance equivalent to crossing the English Channel multiple times over. The result? An average of over £10,000 each year raised for a variety of charitable causes, from supporting vulnerable communities to funding vital medical research.
For the 16th year Trident Honda Ottershaw are sponsoring the event and we are grateful for their continued support.
How to get involved
Joining is simple!
- Find five or six friends, family or colleagues to form a team. (If you can’t persuade anyone to swim with you we can try to slot you into another team – do get in touch)
- Complete a team entry form. (available online from June 2025)
- Make sure all your friends, family and colleagues sponsor you. Make use of the PDF sponsorship form, or better still, create a JustGiving fundraising page by clicking on the big purple JustGiving button below. (Funds for this years event need to be collected and sent in by 23rd November 2024 at the latest. The 2024 JustGiving campaign will remain active until that date.)
Here’s the form to collect your sponsor details
We’re on JustGiving. And you, and your sponsors, may find it easier to manage your fundraising for the event using JustGiving. Using the link below you, and the other members of your team, can set up individual fundraising pages connected to our Swimathon campaign.
In this way, all your contributions and those of your sponsors will flow directly through to us and be recognised automatically via JustGiving.
If you’re new to JustGiving you’ll be walked through a process that asks which charity you want to support, and then which event — look for Woking Rotary Swimathon on the 13th October. Dive in.
If you’d like to support Swimathon but aren’t swimming and aren’t connected to a team you can sponsor, you can still do that. Use the button below to make a one-off donation using Just Giving checkout. All your donation will go to the charities being supported — JustGiving takes no commission on checkout donations.
FAQs
Our Swimathon is a fun event organised by the Rotary Club of Woking to raise money for charitable causes.
Everyone! Local charities get money to help with their important work, whilst the teams of swimmers have lots of fun trying to swim as many lengths as possible whilst raising as much sponsorship money as possible.
This year’s charities are: Woking & Sam Beare Hospices, GASP, Citizens Advice Woking, SAMBER-RDA and Woking Youth Theatre, along with other local charities supported by the Rotary Club of Woking Benevolent Fund (“RCWBF”).
Any confident swimmer who is at least 8 years old, so teams representing many local schools (pupils, staff and parents take part, plus teams from Rotary clubs, youth groups, health clubs, shops, charities, offices, police, paramedics, families, businesses, fire crew, nurses and doctors, friends, scouts and guides, cubs and brownies, swimming clubs.
All team members who take part will be awarded a commemorative medal.
Organising an event such as this takes significant resources. We always try to keep our costs to a minimum. Volunteers do all the work but inevitably there are expenses. For the 16th successive year, Trident Honda is the main sponsor of the Swimathon and is meeting a substantial share of these costs. But this still leaves a large sum to find, and we very much welcome other sponsorship for the event, either corporate or individual.
You and your team will not only raise vital funds for local charities but will have lots of FUN being part of a great day.
We have teams from schools, youth groups, families, work colleagues, sports clubs, local businesses, charities and groups of friends. Everyone is made very welcome, and we hope they all leave with a great sense of achievement. Teams are usually made up of six swimmers, but this can vary.
All swimmers must be safe in deep water, but because you only swim one length at a time you don’t have to be especially strong. You will be in the water for 55 minutes, but you will be resting at the end of your lane between lengths. The whole team may swim about 100 lengths in total, but if one of you is much stronger than the others, you might swim more lengths than your team mates. Taking part is what really matters.
The activity within the Pool building is under the supervision and control of the Pool management at all times.
We welcome children taking part. The minimum age for swimmers is eight years at the time of the event and every team member must be confident swimming in deep water. Children less than sixteen years old need the consent of their parents or guardians. In the case of School Teams, this may be arranged through the school, if the Rotary Club of Woking agrees in advance.
Information and documents for the event, including entry and sponsorship forms, are available here on this website. Entry and sponsorship enquiries should be made to Terry Smith on 01483 762832 or at terry@wychstar.co.uk.