Altrincham Assistant Cafe Bar Manager Takes on Swimming Challenge for Local Children’s Hospice
Nick Jamieson-Jones, assistant café bar manager at Oppio Lounge in Altrincham, is diving into a month-long swimming challenge to raise funds for Francis House Children’s Hospice. The challenge, which will take place at the Total Fitness gym in Altrincham, involves swimming the equivalent distance of the English Channel – 21 miles – by completing 45 laps of the 25 metre pool every day throughout the month of June.
The initiative is part of the annual fundraising event ‘LoungeAid’, organized by Lounge all-day café bar sites across the UK. Nick, 36, wanted to do something big to support the cause and set a goal of raising £1,000 for the hospice.
A former professional dancer, Nick became a regular at the gym after retiring from dancing in 2019. He chose the gym for its pool and had never used it until he saw the Swim 21 challenge advertised on a noticeboard. Nick saw this as the perfect opportunity to combine his full-time job with his passion for swimming and fundraising.
To prepare for his 30-day challenge, Nick has been swimming two to three times a week before or after work. He shared, “I swam when I was very young, but I stopped in my early teens and never really got back to it. It is taking me just over an hour to swim 45 lengths.”
Nick takes his time in the pool, enjoying the peacefulness of the slow lane as he swims breaststroke and listens to his playlist of over 800 songs with his waterproof headphones. He has noticed that his regular swims have actually been beneficial for his energy levels at work, saying, “I get into work after a swim, and I feel wide awake. My colleagues have noticed it and it’s already proving beneficial. I wasn’t expecting that, I genuinely thought I’d be more tired, but at the same time, it’s for such a good cause.”
Francis House Children’s Hospice, based in Didsbury, provides support to over 600 families from across Greater Manchester. They offer a range of services, including respite care, homecare, sibling support, end of life care, and bereavement support, to children and young adults with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions.
A visit to the hospice during an open day further inspired Nick to raise as much money as possible. He shared, “I was taken on a tour of the hospice by one of the care team. I already had some basic idea of what a hospice does in terms of bereavement, but when I walked through the kitchen dining area, I was amazed. It was so open and much bigger than I thought it would be.”
Nick added, “Francis House calls itself a home from home, and Lounges calls itself a lounge away from home. Seeing inside Francis House and how it’s not at all like a hospital, with all the equipment hidden away and being a place for all the family to relax, really motivated me.”
He also shared his emotional experience visiting the “rainbow rooms” – the cooled rooms where a child can go after they have passed away, and their family can spend as much time as they need. Nick said, “Of course, I felt quite emotional when I saw the rainbow rooms. That choked me up a bit. I want to do as much as I possibly can for Francis House.”
The target for LoungeAid is £500 for each Lounge, but Nick’s goal at Oppio Lounge in Altrincham is to raise £1,000. James Ferguson, Fundraising Assistant of Francis House, expressed his gratitude for Nick’s support, saying, “I’d like to thank Nick for his amazing support for Francis House. Swimming the equivalent of the English Channel is no easy feat and will require plenty of motivation and determination to achieve, which I’m sure he has.”
Ferguson continued, “We have worked with Oppio Lounge since their establishment, and their continued desire to help Francis House has been fantastic, strengthening our mission in providing care for children and young adults with life-limiting conditions. Nick’s fundraising during LoungeAid will contribute towards the care and support that we offer at Francis House, ensuring that hundreds of families can continue to rely on us during their times of need.”
As the local community manager, it’s Nick’s job to involve the community in charity events. To help raise funds, there are notice boards on the bar with links to Nick’s JustGiving page, and there will be games to play in-house. Oppio Lounge, which opened in April 2023 at the former Bistrot Pierre site on George Street, has a tight-knit community of regular customers who enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and variety of options, from working on laptops with a cup of coffee, to catching up with
Derick is an experienced reporter having held multiple senior roles for large publishers across Europe. Specialist subjects include small business and financial emerging markets.