Daring swim to help hospice

Mariana Morrison is raising money for Rotorua Hospice by swimming 11.5km from Motiti Island to Maketu. Photo / Ben Fraser

Mariana Morrison is no stranger to endurance training, but her latest endeavour to swim 11.5km from Motiti to Maketu to raise money for Rotorua Hospice is her biggest challenge yet.

"It is a treacherous swim. It's an 11.5km solo swim in a straight line, so in the sea it's more like 15km. I'm doing it in memory of my mum to raise money for hospice."

Ms Morrison was appreciative of the care Rotorua Hospice gave her mother last September, she said.

Rotorua Community Hospice Trust funding development manager Jan Morgan was thrilled at Ms Morrison's endeavour.

"It's once in a blue moon. People don't often think of the hospice as something to donate to, you had the Cancer Society ice bucket challenge, but hospice has never had anything like that," she said.

Rotorua Hospice relies on donations from the community.

"Hospice is 45 per cent funded by the district health board and has got to raise the deficit, which at the moment is about $800,000 for twelve months, so every cent helps and we rely heavily on the Rotorua community and people like Mariana," she said.

Ms Morrison, 29, began training in September last year and has made February 14 the date for her swim.

She said there was no question of her completing the feat, despite being a busy mum to five-year-old daughter Kahurangi, working part-time and studying full-time for her masters degree, which she is set to complete in June.

"It's going to be a huge year, it's going to be a huge less than six weeks. This is very big and very stressful."

The ex-Rotorua Girls' High School student initially wanted to run from Maketu to Tongariro for hospice, but old injuries were exacerbated last year when she completed three marathons, including Rotorua Marathon, which she finished without knowing she had a torn ligament in her knee.

She also completed 70km of the 100km Tarawera Ultramarathon before her injury made her stop.

Ms Morrison began training in September in Tikitapu (Blue Lake) and at the Rotorua Aquatic Centre and needs more boats for her swim in February to maintain her safety in the sea.

-To donate to the hospice or to provide a boat for her swim, visit Ms Morrison's Facebook page www.facebook.com/Motiti2Maketu.