Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to congratulate the team behind the Casey 24 Hour Mega Swim, which took place on Saturday, 5 July and on Sunday, 6 July at Casey RACE, in Cranbourne. The 24 Hour Mega Swim began in 2001 and was initially held at the Fitzroy pool, in Victoria. The 24 Hour Mega Swim was devised by Carol Cooke, who had a vision of bringing people together to raise funds for those living with multiple sclerosis, which is otherwise referred to as MS.

MS is a debilitating and lifelong disease affecting 21,000 Australians, and currently there is no cure for MS. The symptoms of MS are unpredictable, and they vary from person to person. They may include tiredness, blurry vision, loss of balance and muscle coordination, slurred speech, difficulty walking, short-term memory loss, tingling and numbness, or in severe cases tremors and paralysis.

Conducting an event such as the Casey 24 Hour Mega Swim raises awareness about MS. It also raises much-needed funds to assist with treatment and for research to find a cure. Funds raised from this 24 Hour Mega Swim contributed to MS Australia's Go for Gold Scholarships, financial assistance programs and providing services to directly benefit those living with MS.

The 24-hour swim is a competition in which points are awarded to each team. Each team receives one point for every $10 raised and one point for every 500 metres swum. In this year's Casey 24 Hour Mega Swim seven teams competed. One hundred and two people—which is a good number—participated, swimming over 530 kilometres and raising over $21,000. The winning team was the Electric Eels. This team swam 90 kilometres and raised $5,268—of which team member Fiona Stewart herself raised $2,003. The youth award for the event went to Josh Hutchins from the Electric Eels. Josh is 11 years old, and he swam 330 laps in a 24-hour period and raised $1,330 for MS, an incredible achievement. The best-dressed team were a team called the Kings Krushers, who dressed in green wigs and capes—which is pretty interesting around Cranbourne! They raised $3,144. The 100-metres sprint was won in 59 seconds by a young man from the Electric Eels called Sam Russo.

The 24-hour swim was a huge success, and it was because of clubs like the Kiwanis Club and the YMCA Casey RACE. There is also a gentleman who participated in organising the event who was ill, Norman McLennan; his wife, Karen; and his son, Nick, who just happens to work for me. The Berwick Kiwanis Club is a great club, and the fact that Nick's dad would be there working under tough circumstance to make the event such a success says a lot about him, and I commend him for his efforts.