Lady swimming Bosphorus fundraising for Marfan Syndrome

A girl is getting ready to swim the Bosphorus, a sea strait from Asia to Europe, in reminiscence of her life-long good friend who died earlier this month.

Chrissie Thirlwell, 53, a physician and college professor who lives close to Bristol, has taken on a lot of cross-continent swims after swimming the English Channel in 2007.

Dr Thirlwell paid tribute to her good friend Kirsty Widdowson, 53, who died from Marfan syndrome, a genetic dysfunction affecting connective tissue: “I’ll be thinking about her every stroke as I go through the swim,” she stated.

The occasion, which is run by the Turkish Olympic Committee, is 6.5 km (4.04 miles) and consists of 2,400 swimmers from 50 international locations.

“When I was thinking about doing this in Kirsty’s memory, I spoke to her partner, Steve, and to her sister, Lindsay.”

“They both immediately said, ‘oh, that would be fantastic. She would have loved it’.”

“She would have told me I was crazy, but they knew that would make me want to do it even more, she added.

“She was simply probably the most wonderful lady,” Dr Thirlwell stated.

“It’s a extremely worldwide and fairly thrilling race, the place you get in on the Asian facet and land in Europe,” Dr Thirlwell said.

Two previous attempts at the swim were halted by sickness and strong winds forced the organisers to cancel the event.

“I’m actually simply wanting ahead to ending this group of challenges and actually reeling it in, in Kirsty’s reminiscence,” she added.