As part of Holy Trinity Stalybridge's commitment to help a medical facility in Sigishoara, Romania, a work party are all set to fly out on Mon 19 Oct 2009. This team will offer practical help by doing repairs, maintenance and decoration work at the facility - free of charge.

In order to raise the required funds to make it free of charge, organiser Paul Hancock had a 'brainwave' (Editor: ok, stop with the puns now!) - a swimathon.

Paul managed to persuade a number of people to take part in a sponsored swim at Copley Recreation centre. Paul notes that on the night, everyone achieved or beat their target number of lengths, with himself pulling off 106 lengths against his goal of 100. Congrats to everyone who took part, and who produced some amazing swimming performances.

The total raised for the Romania trip was an equally impressive £616. A further donation of £500 has been received to support this mission.

Well done, everybody. Check back for a report on how the trip went.