🏊 2027 Swim Serpentine
Thank you very much for your interest in swimming with Whisper in Swim Serpentine 🥇, on Saturday 18 September 2027 (date to be confirmed)!
We expect to have charity places for 2027 and you are very welcome ❤️ to apply for one using the form below.
The places we have
| Distance | Availability |
|---|---|
| 2 mile | Available 💚 |
| 1 mile | Available 💚 |
| half mile | Available 💚 |
For distances that are unavailable, you can ask to be added to our waiting list.
Registration for the 2027 event has now closed for all charities. We expect to have charity places again next year so you're welcome to apply in advance for next year. There's also an excellent chance of getting your own general entry (non-charity) place for next year if you go to the Swim Serpentine event website just after this year's event and sign up to the organisers' mailing list. Come and see us at this year's event; it's a fun day out.
Whisper offers you and your supporters a cause where even small donations can be life-changing ✨. We're a very high-impact charity that funds Whisper's Magical Children's Hospital 🏥, a maternity unit 🤰🏾, an ambulance 🚑 and a nursing school 🎓 in Jinja, Uganda. We run on an annual donation budget of around £250,000. Every £20.28 donated allows us to treat a child, an average that includes some lengthy inpatient stays 🤒. We estimate that every £318 donated saves a life that would not otherwise have been saved 🧸. Outside Uganda we're entirely staffed by volunteers 💖, helping donations go further.
Swim Serpentine is an annual swimming event 🏆 that takes place in the Serpentine lake 🦆 in London's Hyde Park. It's a pleasant day out even as a spectator 🥳; tell your friends! You can find out more about the event on the official site. There are several available distances:
| Distance | Equivalent in lengths of a 25m pool |
|---|---|
| half mile | 32 |
| one mile | 64 |
| two miles | 129 |
| six miles (not offered by Whisper) | 386 |
For comparison, a two mile swim takes less time and energy than a half marathon 🏃 although efficient technique ⏱️ is important for a swim. You will need to train, but afterwards our swimmers tend to say "it was cold ❄️" more than "it was hard work". You can protect against cold with a swimming wetsuit and for those who need them, wetsuit gloves and socks. A six mile swim is similar to a marathon in time and energy.
What we can offer you
- No entry fee. This is unusual.
- We count legitimate Gift Aid towards your target, which not all charity places do.
- Advice and practical help on fundraising.
- We normally offer free sports massage on event day, for most of the day.
- If you have to drop out for some reason, we can usually, at our discretion, offer you a place the following year and credit you with your fundraising; conditions may apply.
- The places and related expenses have been funded by a Whisper supporter as a thank you 👏🏼 to YOU for taking part. Your supporters aren't paying for your place. This is unusual.
I cannot tell you how inspiring this charity is. They do incredible work. I am raising money for Whisper but the support I am getting from them is fantastic. I have never had this before when raising money for charity. a previous runner in the London Marathon
What we would like from you
In return for a place we'd like you to donate or commit to raising at least £150 (half mile), £200 (one mile) or £300 (two miles) for us.
Let's take a quick tour 👀 of some of the things we do. This is Whisper's hospital; the hospital opened on another site in 2016 and moved to this building in 2018:
This is the ambulance in front of the hospital:
This is one of our operating theatres:
This is our delivery room in the maternity unit:
This is a lecture in our nursing school, which has 40 nurses in its latest intake:
Questions? Click to chat on WhatsApp: 