Salisbury endurance athlete marks 50th birthday in style
Sally Orange has completed yet another epic physical challenge
An endurance athlete from Salisbury has marked her 50th birthday by swimming the St. Kitts and Nevis channel.
Sally Orange, famed for completing endurance challenges in fancy dress, made the three mile swim from Nevis to St. Kitts in two hours and 20 minutes.
"I wanted to to mark the milestone birthday in in a way that I would remember," she told us.
Sally, who's run a marathon on every continent to raise awareness of mental health, told us it was the toughest swimming challenge she's faced, but it was also the most beautiful.
"It was so tough was because of the current and the water was stunning," she said, adding: "It was like swimming in a swimming pool, you could see you could see the bottom, but it was also really quite choppy.
"This is probably one of the longest swims that I've ever done, but certainly the most beautiful.
"I could see rays on the ground, I saw Starfish and I just kept looking up at the mountain of Saint Kitts and pinching myself at how lucky I was to be able to take on a challenge like this."
And of course, no challenge Sally takes on would be complete without fruit-related fancy dress!
There was no fancy dress, per-say, but Sally did sport a passion fruit swimming costume.
Taking the mental health message to the top of the world
We asked Sally how she can top this experience.
She told us that she'll be trading Caribbean waters for the streets of London next weekend, by taking part in the London Marathon, dressed a box of cereal.
And after that, she'll be tackling the Everest Marathon.
She said: "I'm really wanting to take the mental health message to the top of the world, quite literally, you know, last year having ran a marathon on every continent in seven days, I felt that I took the mental health message around the world, but now want to take it to the top of the world."
What fruit costume will she be wearing for that challenge?
"I will have another fruit costume. I'm not sure if I'm lemon or lime yet, because I'm going to be an ice and a slice.
"I think I might wear one costume on the way to base camp and then the other costume to do the actual marathon in."
She's doing both Marathons on behalf of Samaritans and we can support her efforts through her website.