JR 2GB (1)

Jamie Rogers, a newsreader and sports enthusiast, is preparing to swim the English Channel for the mental health charity, Gotcha for Life. Inspired by Australian swimmer Chloe McArdle, Jamie initially thought the idea was terrible, but after researching and getting excited, she decided to take on the challenge. She has been training rigorously, swimming in the pool and ocean multiple times a week, including long swims in cold water to acclimatize. Jamie's support crew consists of friends, a medic, and a pilot. She chose Got You For Life as her charity because they focus on mental fitness and providing support without judgment. Jamie has already reached her fundraising goal of $50,000 and invites listeners to donate through the charity's website or her Instagram page. She appreciates the support and hopes to chat with Jim again after completing the swim. Now, my next guest is someone I've known for a very long time and I've got a huge amount of respect for her as a broadcaster. Jamie Rogers is mad about horse racing and she just loves sport across the board and she's now the newsreader for the Big Sports Breakfast on Sky Sports Radio with my good mate Laurie Daly. But wait for it, Jamie is about to embark on a huge challenge. She's just weeks away from swimming the English Channel for mental health charity, Gotcha for Life. She's also a mother of two young kids. I mean, Jamie is a modern superwoman and she joins me on the line this afternoon. Hi, Jamie. Hi, Jim. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. Tell me why, what inspired you to want to swim the English Channel, Jamie? I mean, first of all, Jim, I think we all have one life and we literally need to just live it to the absolute fullest and the English Channel for me came about, I was actually following Chloe McArdle on air. So this all started two years ago. It's really hard to actually get a spot to be able to swim across the English Channel. So two years ago, Chloe McArdle, who is our Australian swimmer, she was trying to break the men's record of 37. She's now gone on to swim it 44 times. But during that time, you just mentioned that Laurie Daly was a friend of yours. He actually said to me on air when I was talking about Chloe McArdle, he's like, why don't you go and do a challenge, Jamie? You need to go and do something. And my husband then actually said, you're so obsessed with this Chloe McArdle girl, why don't you go and swim the English Channel? And I actually looked at my husband and said, no, I could not think of anything worse actually. Wow. Thanks, Loz and thanks, Dave. Thanks, honey. Exactly. Fair dinkum. And it comes up a lot and Loz is like, wow, I can't believe I did this. I planted that seed and it went from there and you know, it's something that's put into your head. When I first said no, I'm not interested. I couldn't think of anything worse. I've watched her videos. I've seen what swimmers look like when they come out. But then once I actually started to think about it and looked into a little bit more, I actually found myself starting to get really excited about it. And I was looking at photos on Instagram. I was watching videos and documentaries. And next thing I found, I was contacting all the different pilots over there because there's only a handful of registered pilots that can take swimmers across the English Channel. And it was a two-year wait. So I took the thought and it always felt like 2022 was so far away. I remember when I first told you, it was probably 15 months ago now. And here we are today, Mark, six weeks exactly from the start of my Channel window. So what sort of training have you done? It's been very full on. So I'm in the water five times a week and that varies between the swimming pool and in the ocean. Saturdays is when I do my big swim. So this week, I've got a five-hour swim in the ocean. Next week, it's eight hours. I've been on cold water camp because you can't wear a wetsuit. So you need to get your body acclimatized to swimming in between the 14, it could be anywhere between 14 and 18 degrees. So I've been swimming at Brighton the Sands where the water's been 12 degrees sometimes, 14 degrees and cold water camp gym. When I got told about cold water camp, I thought, oh my gosh, this actually sounds like a nightmare. So it's three days of back-to-back swim where you do five hours Friday, it was 10 hours Saturday and then three hours on Sunday. But the whole point of it was to get your body shocked, icy cold, shocked, then you defrost, you warm up a bit, then you go back in. You swim overnight, you swim early in the morning, late at night, during the day. And it's all just so that you're acclimatized to every different thing that could be thrown at you in the Channel because I could start at midnight, so I need to get used to swimming in the dark. So you've got water temperatures, you've got container ships, you've got a few obstacles to deal with across the Channel. And jellyfish. There's no sharks, so that's one plus. No sharkies, that's good. No sharks, too cold for them. What a consolation. Who's in your support crew? Is Dave the Hubby going or is he staying home? He's not actually. So we decided, yeah, it was tough because you mentioned at the start, I've got two little boys, Arches two and Hudson four, and we went to Port Douglas just recently and they were just a nightmare on the plane, around the hotel. We just thought, could you imagine taking them on a 24-hour flight? And the whole thing with the English Channel is it's called the Channel Coaster because you sort of sit around waiting a lot. You don't do much. I'll be in a little town called Folkestone and I know that anytime between the 3rd and 8th of August is when I can go. And my pilot could bring me at 10 p.m. and say, you're leaving at 6 a.m. Or he could bring me and say, actually, we're not going anymore, the weather's too bad. So we just thought it'd be too hard having the kids there. So Dave's staying behind, but I've got two friends coming with me and one comes out on all of my training swims. So she's the one that throws all my food out to me and she has to make sure that I'm eating enough and drinking enough because you can't touch anything in the English Channel. So I can't rest on a plank of wood that's going past me while I'm eating or anything like that. So Sarah has been responsible for making sure that she gets the food out to me and then there's a medic on board and my pilot. There's plenty involved. Absolutely. There's a lot going on. Now, why did you choose Got You For Life as a charity of choice and how much money do you hope to raise? Got You For Life, two years ago when this all started was when we had just had our first lockdown for COVID and Victoria was still in theirs. And I just thought to myself that everyone was struggling in their own way and I just thought Got You For Life is a charity that focuses on mental fitness and having that Got You For Life mate, someone that you can talk to with no judgment. They go out in the community, they run mental fitness programs and I just thought while everyone is struggling in their own way, it was just a good way to raise awareness and to be honest with you now Jim, it's been two years and I actually think we're in a different phase now like we don't need to be raising awareness about mental health. It's about action and actually going out and doing things to make it better. Suicide is the number one cause of death in 15 to 44-year-olds in this country and I like that Got You For Life are all about the action. They're out there in the community making a difference and so I wanted to raise money to be able to go towards these programs. So I set the target of $50,000 and I actually got to that on the weekend. So I'm very happy with that. Yeah, so it literally just ticked over on the weekend. So I've still got six weeks to go and we'll still try and raise as much money as I can because they're doing such a wonderful, wonderful thing. Well, well done. So how can my listeners support you on the Epic Swim? What are the details? Well, the best way to get behind Got You For Life is if you go to their website, you can donate there or if anyone has social media which most people tend to do. These days, if you go to my Instagram, there's a link on there that has all the details. You can see all my training photos, my videos of being out in the middle of the night and in the cold and you can catch it all. Oh man, I'll tell you what. I'll take my hat off to you. And Laurie Daly, putting you on the spot actually. I know. Come on, Loz. Fair dinkum. We'll put those details, by the way, how people can get on board on our website as well at 2gv.com. Good luck and why don't we chat again once you're over there. It'll be terrific. I'd love that, Jim. And hope I can, I've got to say to you all that I am officially an English channel swimmer. Well, all the best. Great chatting, Jamie. Thanks so much for having me, Jim. Good on you. That's broadcaster Jamie Rogers who's about to swim the English channel for mental health charity, Got You For Life. It's 21.