A Helston lifeguard is swimming 300 miles for the RNLI’s 25th year

Twenty-five miles a month, every month, for a whole year. That is the target one Helston lifeguard set himself back in January, and by the time spring was out he was already almost 20 miles ahead of it.

Matt Trewhella patrols the beaches of South Cornwall as an RNLI lifeguard, and across 2026 he is swimming 300 miles to raise money for the crews who cover his stretch of coast. The year is a landmark one for the charity, which is marking 25 years of its lifeguard service on beaches across the UK and Ireland.

📷Credit: Lee Griffin / The Lizard RNLI Lifeboat Station

Twenty-five miles for every year of service

The maths behind the challenge is the point of it. Every month Matt swims 25 miles, one mile for each year the RNLI has run lifeguards on the nation’s beaches, and by the end of the year that adds up to 300 miles.

“I’m committing to swimming 25 miles every month for an entire year, a total of 300 miles,” Matt said. “The 25 miles each month symbolise every year of RNLI Lifeguard service while raising vital funds for the South Cornwall Lifeguard Service.”

He is not doing it as an outsider looking in. “2026 marks my 14th season as an RNLI Lifeguard, and over the years I’ve seen first hand the commitment, teamwork and courage required” to keep people safe in the water, he said. Every mile, in his words, stands for the dedication of lifeguards past and present.

📷Credit: The Lizard RNLI Lifeboat Station

Ahead of schedule, and winning races along the way

Five months in, the numbers were well in front of the plan. Matt had swum 144.55 miles by then, 19.55 miles ahead of where the challenge needed him to be. The monthly tally climbed as the year went on, from 25.58 miles in January and 26.53 in February to 27.29 in March, 33 in April and 32.10 in May.

Plenty of those miles have come in competition. Matt finished fourth overall in the Cotswold 10K Swim, then took first place in both the RNLI Around the Mount Swim and the RNLI Mullion Island Swim. Still to come is the toughest date on the calendar, the Windermere 11-mile end-to-end swim in September.

Nine beaches, one lifeguard service

The money goes to the RNLI lifeguards who patrol South Cornwall, a run of nine beaches that includes Gyllyngvase, Poldhu, Gunwalloe, Porthleven, Praa Sands, Perranuthnoe and Marazion. Every donation helps pay for the training, equipment and resources the service needs to keep going.

The response has already passed the original goal. Matt set out to raise £2,500 and has gone beyond it, with more than £2,810 pledged across 152 donations, plus a further £666 in Gift Aid.

How to follow Matt

Passing the target has not changed the plan. “Reaching the target is an amazing achievement, but the challenge certainly doesn’t stop here,” Matt said, with anything raised beyond it going straight to the service.

His progress, mile by mile and month by month, is logged on Matt’s JustGiving page, where donations are still open. There are seven months of swimming left, and Windermere is still to be swum.

📷Credit: The Lizard RNLI Lifeboat Station