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Jim Bayles To Swim Across Long Island Sound Again

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Jim Bayles To Swim Across Long Island Sound Again

Newtown resident Jim Bayles will be swimming across the Long Island Sound on Sunday, July 13, in his tenth fundraising swim to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut.

The successful English Channel swimmer plans to swim across the Sound again, joined by Liz Fry of Westport. This time Mr Bayles is leaving from Compo Beach in Westport and swimming to Port Jefferson, N.Y.

The swim will be approximately 16 miles, depending on the effect of the tides. At Port Jefferson, the Bayles family will donate a letter from a ship owner who purchased a ship from the family shipyard and used it to transport goods between the United States and South America.

This is Mr Bayles’s third swim in honor of his daughter Kate, who has epilepsy.

“My daughter Kate is a very courageous person,” Mr Bayles said. “She rarely complains of her illness even though she suffers through petite mal seizures on average of one per day. She is in the care of Dr Susan Spenser of Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr Spenser is changing around her medicines in an attempt to give her a more normal life.

“We are trying to raise funds to help the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut help others to cope with this disease,” Mr Bayles said. “If my swimming will help others with this disease, or to fund research to improve treatment, then it is a small sacrifice. I was given a talent to swim. I am just happy to give something back after getting so much enjoyment from my sport of long distance swimming.”

Last year Mr Bayles swam the English Channel, considered by distance swimmers to be the most important open water swim in the world. Fewer people have successfully swum the English Channel than have been in space or climbed Mount Everest. Mr Bayles is one of fewer than 25 people age 50 and over to successfully swim the channel. His time is the third fastest on record for swimmers 50 and over.

Other swims of note include swimming from the Tappan Zee Bridge to midtown Manhattan; from Greenwich, Conn., to downtown Manhattan; swimming around Manhattan, and swimming from Sandy Hook, N.J., to downtown Manhattan. Mr Bayles believes he is the only swimmer to have swum under all the major bridges in the tri-state region, except those over the Arthur Kill that connect Staten Island to New Jersey.

Anyone who is interested in supporting his swim, can send a check for the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut either to his home at 29 Butterfield Road in Newtown or to Linda A. Wallace, executive director, the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut, 386 Main Street, Middletown, CT 06457.

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