Inside Lancashire Sport

The 41-year-old, who has swum the English Channel, is inviting people to join him in the Great North Swim for Diabetes UK on 12th and 13th September at Lake Windermere. 

It is the biggest open water event in the country – with approximately 2500 swimmers taking part – including swimming stars such as David Davies, Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten.

Mark said: “It’s a fantastic event and the great thing about it is that you are in the same event as Olympic medallists and other celebrities. Last year I swam with GMTV’s Dr Hilary Jones who, like me, was swimming for Diabetes UK.”

Blewitt began swimming in 1994 to get fit but he was soon making waves. Despite having type 1 diabetes, his swims got longer and longer and then he started entering races. 

In 1998 he swam the length of Windermere in the BLDSA Championships. He finished fourth and his time for just over ten miles meant he qualified to swim in the Manhattan Island Race the following year.

He didn’t think twice about entering the event even though it was 28.5miles around New York. “I'd be foolish to make the grade and then not enter the race. After Manhattan I started thinking about the Channel,” said Mark.

In preparation for the Channel, he took part in the 2001 Two Way Windermere swim, a distance of 21 miles. Twelve hours into the swim he realised that he had gone past the point where he could think about whether he was okay or not. He carried on regardless while his worried boat crew could only watch out for him. He finished third in just over 14 hours, which was short-listed for the BLDSA’s swim of the year, but his blood sugar level was dangerously low. He was rushed to hospital.

A cheese sandwich and a dose of Novorapid insulin later and he was allowed home. However, not before the doctors put a dampener on his bid to swim the Channel. Although he had already completed swims over that distance - they didn’t think it was possible for someone with type 1 condition.

Mark explains: "I risked having a potentially life-threatening hypo episode in the water by swimming constantly for over 16 hours without touching anyone or the support boat or, more importantly, not being able to test my blood glucose levels.

"I finally found support from a nurse and doctor after appealing to them to give me one reason why I could do it, not ten reasons why I couldn't!"

He enrolled the services of Judith Campbell, a diabetes specialist nurse, and Mike Oram who has piloted more Channel crossings than any other pilot. Oram told him he was eating the wrong foods and not getting enough calories. He introduced him to a hot energy drink he swore by. The hot drink is absorbed straight into the blood stream so he wouldn’t lose energy digesting it and, because it was hot, he would retain all his body heat internally. With the help of his nurse, pilot and the health drink, he became the first Brit with insulin dependent diabetes to achieve the English Channel feat in 2002.

The Channel isn’t the longest swim he has done: the longest continuous swim he has done is an incredible 17 hours and 50 minutes. So what does he think about when he is doing such long races? He said: “You just think about swimming for the next five minutes.  Occasionally you wake up and realise that you had been asleep.  That can be frustrating because when you are asleep there is no pain.”

Even the cold doesn’t faze him. “You don't think about; you just get on with it,” he says.

Diagnosed at only 13 years of age, Mark has never let his condition hold him back. “I guess it’s like playing cards - if you get a poor hand but play well you can still win. It’s making the most of what you've got.”

• The Great North Swim on 12th and 13th September 2009 at Lake Windermere. While the race is full – there are still places available to swim for charity partnerships. See the greatswim.org website for more details.