Edinburgh Leisure is inviting people to sign up to their first ever public fundraising event – the ‘Jump In Swim Challenge’, which begins on September 1.

Swimmers who take up the challenge will stroke, crawl and paddle for 30 days whilst raising vital funds to give local nursery school pupils affected by poverty the chance to learn to swim, an opportunity that many of these children do not have.

The ‘Jump In Swim Challenge’, which is open to anyone to take part, invites people to swim a total distance of 5km or 10km in September. For those looking to be a little bit more adventurous, they can take in the 10×10 Challenge and swim their 10km across Edinburgh Leisure’s 10 pools over the course of September.

Edinburgh Leisure Chief Executive June Peebles said: “every child should learn to swim; it’s fun and a great way to be active, as well as being a potentially life-saving skill. Swimming is also an activity that you can do throughout your life – as demonstrated by the age range of our swim customers! All money raised by Jump In challengers will enable Edinburgh Leisure to provide nursery school children the chance to learn to swim. As little as £40 will fund one child through their 8 weeks of swimming lessons, with a target of 500 children being set for the project. I encourage anyone who is interested in a new challenge to Jump In and contribute to this wonderful event.“

Since 2012, Jump In has helped 1,500 nursery school children become safer and more confident around the water. The project works with local authority nursery schools situated in areas of deprivation. Children get a free block of swimming lessons and the chance to go swimming with their family for just £1. This is followed by six months of discounted lessons, giving parents an affordable way for their child to become a more confident swimmer.

Are you interested in taking part in the challenge? You can register online at www.edinburghleisure.co.uk/jumpinswimchallenge or pop in to any Edinburgh Leisure venue for details.

Leith Victoria to get gym upgrade

The doors to Edinburgh Leisure’s popular gym at Leith Victoria Swim Centre will temporarily close for refurbishment at 19.30pm on Thursday, 29 June, reopening at 6.00am on Saturday, 8 July, although there will be no interruption to their fitness class programme.

Nicola Duffy, Manager of Leith Victoria explained: “At Edinburgh Leisure, we want to dispel the myth that our equipment is outdated and old-fashioned; in fact, quite the opposite is true.

As part of the ‘biggest club in town’, with over 30 venues, we are constantly upgrading our gyms across the city with the latest equipment to give our customers the best possible fitness experience. So, our gym at Leith Victoria will be getting brand, new state of the art cardiovascular equipment from Life Fitness’ Discover SE range, as well as the introduction of new equipment including Power Mills, Cybex Bravos and an Octane x r6000 cross-trainer. And in our functional area, there will be a Woodway treadmill and a GX Upper Cycle, adding variety to the new MYZONE gym based classes.”

During the period the gym is closed, customers will be able to use many of Edinburgh Leisure’s other sites, with the exception of Glenogle, which is receiving a £125k major refurbishment work of the pool area, meaning the whole building will be completely closed from 1-9 July.

Further information is available on www.edinburghleisure.co.uk. Follow Edinburgh Leisure on Facebook (EdinburghLeisure) and Twitter (@Ed_Leisure).