The 10k Record – An Inspirational Story

In early 2010 Christopher (Christy) Healy and his wife Trish were told that their only child, Stephen (18) had Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (cancer of the lymphoid tissue). The family faced the illness  head on. A cousin of Christy’s who visited the hospital regularly was Jonathan Mangan who was also an active volunteer with The Share a Dream Foundation who do incredible work for sick children all over Ireland.

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To ‘give something back’/ ‘pay it forward’ for all the help and support received by the Healy family, Christy decided, as you do, to set a new World Record scuba diving 10 kilometers underwater to raise funds for Share a Dream. Christy is an experienced dive instructor having first trained with Burren Sub Aqua Club in 1998 and now runs the Atlantic Diving School in Ennis, Co. Clare (The coastline of which offers some of the country’s best dive spots). Christy’s namesake,  Saint Christopher is the Patron Saint of Travelers and is especially revered by athletes, mariners and ferrymen I am told.  Scuba diving wasn’t around in his time, and if it was he probably would have advised against such a crazy notion.

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To swim 10k is a feat in itself. To do it underwater kitted up in full diving gear is another matter altogether. To counteract the buoyancy in a wetsuit you must wear a weight belt (weighing over two stone in most cases) along with a cumbersome bottle of air and other diving paraphernalia. To say you’re not exactly streamlined is an understatement!

On top of that you are limited to just using your legs for forward propulsion as your arms, unlike swimming on the surface, are useless for swimming underwater while wearing fins. For this reason most scuba divers do not cover a lot of ground on a dive, although a good level of fitness is preferable to ensure a safe enjoyable dive experience. It was clear that Christy had to be fit for the challenge.

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Christy took up cycling as he felt it was ‘a great way to get the lungs working’ and was supported by a group of friends who accompanied him on cycles of up to 30km a day. Along with this he also started to do press-ups and sit-ups to harden the body. Six weeks before the World Record attempt fitness trainer Neil Barrett gave him a special exercise training program along with nutritional advice on what to eat and drink. He had to train 6 days a week – two days diving, two days running (one of which was a jog & sprint exercise on a treadmill gradually increasing the repetitions and the other purely running), one day body training (resistance training) and one day where he had to spend an hour on a trampoline. He was advised to consume 3000 calories a day with a high protein diet (including meats, nuts, seeds, pasta etc.) and drink 3 litres of water a day and an extra litre while training.  In order to be able to drink clean water while diving a special bag which released water when a hose was bitten on was used.

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The amount of preparation and work that went into the attempt is an inspiration to all and I encourage you to buy the book to understand the full extent of the lengths a man will go to for the love of his son. You can also win a signed copy of the book (see below for details).

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And what about Christy’s son Stephen? Well I am happy to say that after six months of Chemotherapy and a kidney operation Stephen has been given the all clear.

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This video is of the presentation of the Guinness World Record Cert along with some footage from the dive itself.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl-OzVkH4jI

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This site is the 3rd stop on a Virtual Book Tour leading up to the launch in Hughes & Hughes in Ennis on Saturday. Day 1 was at Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer, Day 2 at De-Stress 4 Life, Day 4 at Write Words and Day 5 at CG Online Marketing

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