Karen Mee, a partner at Midlands firm Evans Derry, is cautious about claiming the honour, but we reckon she may be the first UK lawyer to have swum the channel solo. Mee, who practises under her maiden name Beevers, completed the feat earlier this month, exactly 100 years after Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to make the crossing.
The swim is at least 21 miles (if you get the tides right) in open water, with cold and unpredictable conditions. Mee’s feat involved more than two years of intensive physical and mental preparation alongside her career as a solicitor and mediator. A highlight of the training was a January trip to Poland, when Mee became one of the first British women to complete the Baltic Beast 1k swim – in sub-zero waters.
Mee’s time across the channel was 14 hours, 39 minutes. She is raising funds for Parkinson’s UK and the Brain Tumour Charity, having seen the impact of both diseases on friends and family.
According to the Channel Swimming Association, since 1875 only 2,148 solo swims have been achieved. As well as names and times, the association’s handbook lists swimmers’ occupations. Two lawyers are listed, one from Mozambique and one from the US.
‘I think I may be the first UK lawyer to complete the swim,’ she says. Unless any Gazette readers know differently?
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