OLYMPIC swimming stars will be spending the New Year coaching some of Africa's most poorest children – thanks to the City of Derby Swimming Club.
I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here...! contestant Rebecca Adlington, and fellow Olympians Ross Davenport and Joanne Jackson will be heading to Zambia with city swim club members to support the charity Sport in Action.
Last October, the Olympians swapped the pool for the saddle to take part in Bike Africa, a 400-mile bike ride across Zambia to raise money for the charity.
Now, the City of Derby Swimming Club has been given the opportunity to send head coach Mel Marshall – who took part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics – and a small group of young swimmers out to the African country to visit the charity.
Sport in Action educates young children and teenagers about HIV and AIDs through sport, and swimming in particular.
In Zambia the famous volunteers will be helping to teach local children to swim in the pool built with the money that they helped to raise.
The group set out from the UK today. Olympic swimmer Ross Davenport was excited to be seeing where the money he had helped to raise through the cycling challenge would be going. He said: "Last year with the bike ride we raised £35,000 and we're going out to see where the money will be spent. It's an amazing place and it's great we're able to go there again.
"We're going to help out with a few projects and help people over there to have a better standard of living."
The swimming club has supported Sport in Action for many years and head coach Mel is an ambassador for the charity.
She said: "I got the club involved with the Zambia project a few years ago. Last October, after the Olympics, Becky, Ross, Jo and me did a bike ride for the project for which we raised £35,000 in the end. I have some good contacts out there.
"The Zambians have a 50m pool and they can provide us with accommodation free so we've got the chance to go out and train there.
"It's all linked in. We are going to launch the project that we raised funds for – a sports facility in an impoverished community so that kids can play basketball.
"It's almost like a second family to me and we're opening a children's dormitory in an orphanage.
"It's a strong line-up so our kids are effectively going away to coach alongside Jo Jackson, Ross Davenport and Becky Adlington."
