We were very lucky to be joined on poolside last night (7th May 2026) by representatives from the Royal Mail Delivery Office in Poole, who recently completed an extraordinary challenge — a 52‑mile walk from Poole to Lyndhurst and back — to raise money in memory of two very special people.
They chose to support two charities close to their hearts:
- Diabetes UK, in memory of Simon Write’s daughter
- RLSS Poole Lifeguard, in memory of their late colleague Richard McNally, who loved supporting our club and took part in the Brownsea Island Swim over many years. His wife, Maria, continues that legacy by volunteering as a marshal each year.
Last night, they presented our club with an incredibly generous £1,000 donation — completely unexpected and deeply appreciated by everyone at RLSS Poole Lifeguard.
Their achievement is nothing short of remarkable. Although billed as a 52‑mile challenge, the team actually completed 54.5 miles, with all 19 colleagues finishing the walk. To put that into perspective, that’s around 120,000 steps in a single day — the equivalent of doing your daily 10,000 steps twelve times over.
The challenge began at 2am and finished at 8pm on 6th April. Simon described it as the toughest test he has ever faced — physically, mentally, and emotionally. There were moments when they were close to giving up, but each time they dug deep, supported one another, and pushed on to the end.
Simon shared a powerful message: this challenge proves that no matter what life throws at you, you can find the strength to keep going, overcome obstacles, and achieve your goal.
Their social media post even mentioned how much they enjoyed visiting us on poolside, seeing our members training hard and learning lifesaving skills — a lovely connection between their challenge and ours.
We are currently looking to purchase new Club Rash Vests for use during our beach training sessions and at safety‑cover events. Thanks to this incredibly generous donation, we are now able to move ahead with this project — and, in a fitting tribute, we plan to include the name “Ricky” on the sleeve of every rash vest in memory of Richard McNally.
The extract below is taken from their social media page that they set up for the 52 Mile Charity Walk,
Furthe information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1596689924996778/
Simon, Maria and the guys met up at the BCPLeisure Dolphin Pool in Poole, last night to very proudly watch Simon present a cheque to the value of £1,000 to the RLSS Poole Lifeguard Club. This wonderful amount of money was being donated in memory of our dearly loved and much missed friend Ricky,and was the first of the walks two nominated charities.
It was lovely to meet some of the guys at the lifeguards,and to be shown around the pool,and to see what wonderful work they’re doing day in and day out with a bunch of children,that just want to be able to better themselves in life,by being able to swim and to of course have that most important of skills – to save someone’s life!
Also incredibly lovely to hear just some of the things that our donation will enable them to achieve going forward.
And lastly,it was genuinely heartwarming to see the kids applauding YOUR hard work and effort,on that crazy day in early April,you guys.
Here’s the charities website,if you’d like to check out the great work they do,both in and out of the pool :-
