First Briton crosses Bangla Channel

Becky Horsbrugh

A journalist became the first British citizen to cross the 16-kilometre Bangla Channel, stretching from Teknaf to Saint Martin's Island in Bangladesh.

Becky Horsbrugh, who is also a swimming instructor, started swimming at 9:20am yesterday. It took her four hours and 45 minutes to cross the channel.

“I'm very happy to have completed it,” she told journalists and locals after touching the finish mark.

The Associated Press (AP) journalist swam the channel to raise funds for the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB).

“So very proud to say I'm the first Brit to swim the Bangla Channel!” she wrote in her Facebook wall.

“The wind picked up overnight and the water was choppy. The first hour seemed to take forever. The waves kept bashing against me and I could feel jellyfish stings,” she wrote, adding that the biggest relief was when she first caught sight of the island.

“My back started to hurt… There were jellyfish everywhere but finally I could see the outline of people on the beach,” said Becky, thanking all those who helped her to make it.

A combination of her two wishes -- a chance to return to Bangladesh and raise funds for the CIPRB -- inspired the journalist to cross the channel.

She first visited Bangladesh last July to help out with the SwimSafe schemes run by the CIPRB.

She was concerned after reading articles on the rate of children's death by drowning in Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey 2016, 40 children drown every day and among the total victims, 9,000 are aged between one and four years. Over 15,000 children drown annually in the country.

More than 80 percent of the drowning occurs in natural water bodies (ditches, ponds and creeks) less than 20 metres from their house. Most of the drowning occurs in rural areas during the day, between 9:00am and 2:00pm, when the mothers are busy with household chores and the child is left unsupervised.

Becky said swimming is a fundamental life saving right and it is a basic skill that everyone has a right to learn.

She said she would come back again to break her own record. “Next time when I would be swimming this channel, I want one Bangladeshi girl to accompany me.”