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Outlook: How to give up

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Beth French

20/05/2019 GMT

How to give up

BBC World Service - Outlook, How to give up

Why extreme swimmer Beth French doesn’t regret giving up on her life’s ambition

Beth French vowed to swim seven of the world’s most dangerous ocean channels in a year. She faced sharks and rip currents. But it was something closer to home that made her stop.

British swimmer Beth French has chronic fatigue syndrome, and when she was a teenager, she even spent a year in a wheelchair. So years later, when she swam all the way from England to France – and was still home in time to put her son to bed – she knew she’d done something really special. But then Beth set herself an impossible challenge – she vowed to swim seven of the world’s most dangerous ocean channels in a single year. She faced sharks and rip currents. But it was something closer to home that made her stop. She tells Outlook’s Jo Fidgen her story. 

Tito Quiroz used to wave up at the inmates of the prison next door to his university in Ensenada, Mexico, and they'd wave back from their cell windows. Then, one day, he got the opportunity to go inside to teach them his passion, the violin. Tito endured the somewhat intimidating atmosphere inside, and found an audience desperate to learn. One man in particular would use the music he was imbued with to turn his life around.

(Image: Beth French swimming. Photo credit: Oceans 7 Films.)

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