Southport swimmers go to great lengths in cancer research fundraiser

PARTICIPANTS in a mammoth swimathon have swam the equivalent of the English Channel 3 times; plus an extra 10 miles on top; to raise £5,000 for North West Cancer Research.

The fundraiser, held at Victoria Leisure and Fitness, was a group effort with a total of 77 enthusiastic swimmers aged between eight and 79 years old taking part.

Together they clocked up 73 miles over a period of 12 hours to raise the final amount, which will be donated to North West Cancer Research via the charity's Southport fundraising Committee.

1 swimmer in particular, June Obersby, went the extra mile and raised a whopping £405; the biggest single total amount raised on the day. She was rewarded for her efforts with a 1 night's stay at The Ramada Hotel.

Wally Birch, owner and director of Victoria Leisure and Fitness Centre and who at 79 was the swimathon's oldest participant, said:- "It was a great day and we were amazed by the number of people who turned up. Regardless of ability and distance covered, every single person had a significant part to play in helping us raise this wonderful amount of money. I chose North West Cancer Research to benefit from the fundraiser, as I strongly support its commitment to finding a way to stop cancer. I know they rely heavily on financial contributions so I'm happy to help in whatever way I can."

Victoria Leisure and Fitness centre's donation will contribute to North West Cancer Research's latest commitment to fund £11.2 million worth of cancer research across the North West over the next 5 years; £7.7 million of which will be spent at the University of Liverpool.

Olive Cutts, chair of the Southport Committee, who accepted the cheque on behalf of North West Cancer Research said:- "We are so grateful to Wally and his fellow swimmers for their amazing contribution and equally as impressed with the distance they managed to cover. Fundraising committees rely heavily on the support of local communities and this is another great example of enjoyable ways to raise money."

Anne Jackson, Chief Executive at North West Cancer Research also adds:- "This is phenomenal effort from Victoria Leisure & Fitness Centre. Donations like this are instrumental in our overall fundraising strategy and combined, they enable us to pledge more funding for research and therefore progressing on the available treatments for cancer."

Virus Emails coming from InterFAX

WE have had a few emails sent to US that are appearing to arrive from Interfax, as have a few of our readers. The email pictured here, says:- "New incoming fax document." Then it goes on to say a few other things, which includes filename and author etc. It then asks you to download the document. If you click on it, it downloads a zip file. We are aware that it contain a virus, so do not open it or try and download it! Interfax has said publicly that:- "It has come to our attention that an unknown 3rd party is sending malicious emails which contain a javascript virus. The email is spoofed to look as though it was sent from the email address . This is NOT an email sent by InterFAX, and you should NOT open the attached file." This is one of many spoofing emails that have popped up over the last week, purporting to be from well known internet services, like InterFAX, with other affected like Dropbox... The risk of malware infection is well known when opening unsolicited email attachments, like pdf documents and zip files, but many people's computers continue to be infected via precisely this method. So once again the online community is being warned to be wary of opening unsolicited email attachments, even if you recognize the sender or it is a file that looks normal, like a pdf. Oddly, of the most common disguises seen in SPAM malware campaigns in recent years, is that of the "incoming fax" so if you're not expecting a fax, and/or if you don't recognise fax notifications, don't open it! It should go without saying to keep the security of your operating system up to date, but common sense is still required. Like this email, just delete it... Always be suspicious and do not make life easy for the hackers, even if the virus checker passes the file at 1st!