Crowds turn out to mark woman's 1,000th daily dip

Hundreds of people flocked to a beach to help a woman mark her 1,000th daily swim to raise awareness of her husband

Ruth Hitchcock has been swimming every day since October 2023 to raise awareness for research into neuroendocrine cancer.

Her husband Dave was diagnosed with the cancer in 2009 and, although he had an an operation to remove it, his condition returned in 2021.

Starting her challenge in October 2023, Ruth has now raised more than £65,000. She took to the water for the 1,000th time on Sunday morning at Gyllyngvase beach.

Ruth, who was a finalist in BBC Cornwall's Make a Difference awards, said that swimming every day was not easy, especially during the winter months.

She said: "Don't tell my dad - I've had a couple of dangerous ones. A few of them have not been so nice and some really cold ones. There was one up in Lowestoft, on the east coast, where I knew I was not in a good place because of the cold."

But she said the daily dip was worth it to raise awareness of her husband's illness.

"The problem with this cancer is it suddenly changes so they can keep him stable, then that treatment stops working and there's a limited amount of treatments after that," she said.

Dave said he had stage four neuroendocrine cancer, which was terminal.

"The neuroendocrine system controls all the organs in your body and controls all the hormones, everything talks to each other and basically that goes wonky, that goes screwy and the messages between the organs all get messed up so they stop operating properly.

"I was originally diagnosed in 2009 and had an operation then to remove it from my bowel and then we were good until 2021, where it came back and they found it again. "It's now spread, it's stage four, so it's spread from the bowel to the liver, spine and places."

Dave and Ruth are using the awareness created by her swims to push for earlier diagnosis of neuroendocrine cancer.

"Doctors, GPs, medical professionals are hugely unaware of it and generally it takes four years, five years to get diagnosed - by which time a small problem is then a big problem," said Dave.

"So we're very keen to try and get education there for earlier diagnosis to avoid people getting to stage four."

With so many people turning out to support her and Dave, Ruth said she was also delighted to have inspired so many other people to swim.

"Some people have said I've just gone and swum for the first time because of you, and that really makes it all seem worthwhile," she said.

Hannah Persaud, head of fundraising at Neuroendocrine Cancer UK, said: "Ruth's been fundraising for us for three years now and she's raised over £65,000, which is just amazing.

"She's channelled her energy and passion and commitment into doing this, which is just quite amazing.

"On top of dealing with the diagnosis itself and living the rest of her life, she's prioritised this and to raise £65,000 is just unbelievable."

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