MORE than 50 children and adults took part in a Swimathon to raise money for Marie Curie Care last weekend.

Taking on a challenge of three different distances, the swimmers were able to compete as individuals or as a part of a team.

One swimmer Tim Taylor, who took part for the second consecutive time in memory of his mother, Sallie Taylor, has raised more than £500, through this year’s event to donate to the charity.

This biannual swimathon has been hosted by the Dolphin Centre for many years and the charity has said a big thank you to the team at the centre for organising the registrations and providing many of the volunteer swim-lap counters.

Tom Ward, the event organiser at the leisure centre, said: “ I personally think what’s so special about the Swimathon it is that people are so willing to give up their time to assist and make the event such a success. There’s a lot of work that goes on in the background, and we have a network of staff that work tirelessly to promote events within the centre – this was the case with Swimathon promoting it on social media, offering it to our corporate membership teams.”

In addition, leisure centre also organised a raffle, on behalf of Darlington Marie Curie, which raised £96 and centre users also donated over £22 in the daffodil collection boxes.

For more details about the activities and work carried out by the Darlington Fundraising Group for Marie Curie, who meet once a month, contact the Facebook group @mariecuriedarlo, by email darlingtonfundraisinggroup.mariecurie@hotmail.co.uk or on Twitter @MarieCurieDarlo