By Tia Singh -
Those sailing across the English Channel this month can expect to see an Aussie lawyer in the water. MinterEllison’s Emily Miers is braving the world’s busiest waterway to raise money for research into children’s brain cancer – an illness that hits close to home.
The idea of diving into the Atlantic Ocean at the crack of dawn to swim 35-odd kilometres in freezing water is not everyone’s cup of tea. But 24-year-old MinterEllison lawyer Emily Miers can hardly wait, and not even the threat of sharks circling below is a deterrent. Instead, Miers believes there is something calming about swimming in open waters.
For the last three years, she has been preparing to conquer the Mount Everest of open-water swims in order to raise funds for the Children’s Cancer Institute. Her reason for doing so is tragic.
“I lost my older sister, Sarah, to a brain tumour in 1997,” she says.
“I thought swimming the Channel was a good opportunity to give back and raise awareness and funds to try to reduce the occurrence of what my family went through.”
The English Channel stretches between England and France and is considered the busiest shipping lane in the world.
