As former navy marine Peter Moore dipped into the 15°C water to swim 7km down the Sundays River to help a fellow lung transplant candidate, he was not thinking of the cold.
“Your lungs are coming soon,” was the message he had for Vanessa Neveling, 25, who is at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur Hospital waiting for a pair of donor lungs.
Moore said he wanted to swim 7km on the 7th day of the 7th month to raise awareness for Neveling’s trust – and also for organ donation.
“One organ donor can save seven lives,” he said.
Moore, 54, himself needs a double lung transplant and only has between 18% and 24% lung capacity.
“When I got in, the water temperature was about 15°C. It actually hurt. For a second I thought, I don’t think I am going to manage.” But he did. Moore completed what he called his “crazy swim” in four hours and 15 minutes.
A friend who was in the marines with him, Gerald Males, and Moore’s daughter Nicole swam with him.
Moore was also accompanied by a paramedic in a canoe in case he needed help, and the ferry from Sundays River Adventures brought family and friends over to cheer him on.
Moore said it was a real struggle in the beginning. “My heart rate went through the roof. I struggled to breathe.”
After 1.6km he started feeling a bit better. “Then the cramps started, but I wasn’t going to stop. I thought even if they have to drag my lifeless body through these 7km I am not going to give up. We just kept going,” he said.
He said when they got close to the river mouth the water temperature dropped again.
“It was a hard swim but I loved it. The only thing is – it is a day later now and I still feel cold,” he laughed on Sunday.
Last year, Moore completed the SPAR River Mile – the first oxygen-dependent person in the world to complete an open water swim event.
Moore suffered burns to his lungs when he rescued children from a Sandton creche after a chlorine gas leak. The damage to his lungs has caused him to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.