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Staying out in cold weather might take a toll on many, but imagine swimming for about 24 hours in 15ºC water.
Maria Conceicao, owner of the Maria Cristina Foundation that helps underprivileged children in Bangladesh, is planning to take the challenge.
The Dubai-based Portuguese will swim 32km across the English Channel, which is considered one of the toughest sporting challenges in the world, to save her foundation and raise £140,000 (Dh673006) for educating 172 children in Bangladesh.
To qualify, she had to pass a six-hour swim in 15ºC open water, despite learning to swim last year.
"I am not an athlete. I learned to swim last year, but as a mother to these children, there is nothing I wouldn't do for them," she said.
Conceicao will start her swim from Dover, UK, on August 27 and end it in Cap Gris Nez, France: a trip that will take around 18-24 hours in a 15ºC water without a wetsuit, which puts her at a risk of hypothermia.
She also has to fight waves, currents and jellyfish in one of the busiest shipping routes in Europe.
"My swim is not difficult compared to the hardships children in Dhaka face daily. I hope with all my heart that it will yield the results we need to keep the foundation going," she said. Currently training in Jersey, UK, for the past two months, Conceicao said that getting used to the cold water has been the hardest part.
"I have lived in Dubai for so long and have never had to stay in such cold water for hours," she noted.
The foundation, operating since 2005, has struggled to keep going due to lack of funds. She said she had to take desperate measures to raise awareness and make public appeals for help, even if it meant putting her own life in danger.
But what struck all this passion? Conceicao said as part of her former flight attendant position, she made a service flight from Dubai to Dhaka for 24 hours where she "witnessed poverty on such a large scale."
Gathering donations and selling her valuable items, Conceicao started a school project that has provided education to over 600 children until today. Students and staff members were also vaccinated against contagious diseases.
Giving out a helping hand and "breaking the cycle of poverty the children were born into" is Conceicao's main motivation to keep going.
"Don't let where they are born determine where they can go. Give them choices," she said.
Her larger-than-life ?activities
> In 2010, Maria summited Mount Kilimanjaro.
> In 2011, she made a successful trek to the North Pole and walked a marathon on each of the seven emirates in the UAE in seven days.
> In 2013, she became the first Portuguese woman to summit Mount Everest and since then has ran seven ultra marathons on seven continents in six weeks, seven ultra marathons in seven days and seven marathons on seven continents in 11 days.
> Conceicao holds six Guinness World Records.
For donations: visit http://mariacristinafoundation.org/en/
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com
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