Swimming challenge at Oundle School pool in memory of Cotterstock teacher raised funds for Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice

A swimming teacher made waves with a challenge in memory of her best friend.

Jacqueline Cheetham, 64, has completed a 22-mile swimming fundraiser in memory of Jenny Blount.

The part-time swimming teacher covered more than 1,324 lengths of the swimming pool at Oundle School over a three-month period as a way of raising funds for Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall hospice, where Jenny spent her final days.

Jacqueline said: “Jenny was extraordinarily special.

“She was amazing - just full of life and laughter, with a smile that could light up a room.

“She knew so many people and was an amazing mother, grandmother and wife. She’s left a huge hole for all of us.”

The inseparable pair first met at Prince William School in Oundle, where Jenny, a newly qualified French and European studies teacher, taught Jacqueline in her final year.

After losing touch, the duo were reunited about nine years ago.

“We were always doing something stupid together,” said Jacqueline. “I referred to her as ‘Miss’, because I just couldn’t call her by her name.

“We were very close. We shared books and then in typical teacher fashion we’d discuss them.

“We watched TV and films together, again it was like being back at school, we’d dissect them together.”

Having lost her husband Nigel to oesophageal cancer two years earlier, Jacqueline was devastated when her best friend received the same diagnosis in November 2023.

Jenny spent her final three months receiving care at Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice in Peterborough less than a year later.

Jacqueline said: “It's hard to describe the care she received - you can’t put it into words I don’t think. It was amazing. Everything was done for her.”

The duo started swimming together after lockdown, which prompted the idea for a sponsored swim.

Jenny’s husband suggested Jacqueline swim the distance from Cotterstock, where they lived, to Thorpe Hall but, knowing she could challenge herself further, decided on the distance from her home in Thrapston to the hospice.

She said: “That was the drive I made every day to see her. In the end, I think I swam 22 miles. The pool has always been my happy place.”

Jacqueline began her swim in November last year, shortly after the service held to celebrate Jenny’s life, and went on to raise £2,000 - quadruple her original fundraising target of £500.

Jacqueline said: “Everyone says she’d be proud of me, and I know she would be. We had an amazing friendship. I just loved her so much and I know she loved me.”