DEBRA UK Challenge 2024/25

“Double the distance plus more, will you join Team DEBRA and BE the difference for EB?”

Last June, football legend and DEBRA UK Vice President Graeme Souness CBE, alongside the swim team, took on the DEBRA UK swim challenge and swam the 30-mile stretch of water that lies between Dover and Calais. Their motivation was Isla Grist, 16, who lives with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. Graeme and the swim team made it to the shores of France and completed the English Channel swim in a speedy 12 hours 17 minutes! That wasn’t enough for Graeme though, and in his words, “we must do more”. So, now, Team DEBRA is taking on an even bigger challenge to 'BE the difference for EB.'

Graeme explains more:

“There is still so much more that we need to do for people living with the excruciating pain of EB, which is why we’re getting the team back together.

As a team, we’re going to push ourselves even further this time and swim twice as far, swimming the English Channel there and back, and then cycling 85 miles from Dover to London!

Last year was tough, this year is going to be even tougher.

I will be taking on the cycling element of the challenge, and I despise cycling! I’m not built for it, but I’ve been working hard. Each time I get on that bike, I have Isla on my mind. I’ve spent a lot of time with her recently and each time I see her I’m reminded of why I’m doing another challenge. Isla lives with the excruciating pain and itch from EB daily.

This challenge is in support of DEBRA UK’s 2024/25 'BE the difference for EB' appeal. With your help, we can raise £300,000, which could enable DEBRA UK to clinically test a drug treatment that could help stop the pain of EB for Isla and thousands of other children and adults living with EB.

So, please support me and the team. You can sponsor us or set up your own fundraiser. Why not set up your own swimathon with a length of the pool for every mile the team will be taking on in the English Channel, or set up a sponsored cycle ride, or is there anything else that’s a little bit different that you can do to support people living with EB? Whatever you do will make a huge difference.

We need everyone to play their part to BE the difference for EB; this is not a fight we can win alone.

Thank you for your support”.