Given her employment as a Respiratory Clinical Nurse Specialist at Withybush Hospital, you’d think that 2020 would already have been busy enough for Sarah Hicks.

But as well dealing with the extra hours and intense working environment brought about by Covid-19, the Kilgetty woman has also managed to achieve something remarkable.

Indeed, despite months of hampered preparation, last week Sarah was one of six open water swimmers from across the UK who teamed up to swim the channel, starting at Shakespeare Beach in Dover and finishing near Calais in France.

In adverse sea conditions, team members swam in one hour stints while others rested and recovered on the boat that travelled alongside each swimmer, and they reached their destination after 16 arduous hours.

And in doing so they raised vital funds for Aspire, a charity that supports people back to independence following paralysis from spinal injury.  

“It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” the 52-year-old admitted to Telegraph Sport.

 “The tide was fast and pulling us everywhere. The distance across the sea is measured at 21 miles when straight but we worked out after that we ended up doing about double that.

“When we managed to get there it was a mixture of elation and relief.”

Small wonder, after what Sarah modestly describes as a “bit of a year.”

Ironically, she had little affiliation with open water swimming as a youngster but after becoming a coach at the Tenby Penguins, a role she still holds, her interest was ignited.

“After my children got older I tried to further my coaching so went to do my open water qualification in Doncaster,” she explained.

“On the course were three previous ‘channel’ swimmers and two ice swimmers. They persuaded me to come out of my wetsuit, so to speak, (wetsuits are forbidden in official channel swims) and have a go.”

From there she didn’t look back, and after Aspire put out an advert inviting swimmers to try and qualify to represent them in the ultimate relay challenge, she duly applied and passed the testing criteria.

Originally, 2021 was her target, but with her daughter’s wedding scheduled that summer, bravely opted for this August instead.

And that was before the Coronavirus pandemic, which would go on to have a profound effect on her preparation.

“When around February things started escalating with Covid-19 I had to put training on the back burner,” she admitted.

“At a time when I should have been acclimatising, and had planned to be doing two hour stints in temperatures under 16 degrees, I couldn’t get in the water.

“I did set up a pool in my garden and tried to do some tethered swimming in cold conditions but that was difficult too as I was getting back from work so late. I spent about an eight week period out of the water when I should have been regularly in there.”

As the event drew closer, she did manage to practice at her usual training jaunts around Tenby and Saundersfoot, and also travelled to tackle lakes at places like Bala and Windermore.

Furthermore, the current restrictions in the UK meant the teammates could not meet up to train together as is normally the case, and were restricted to communicating via Zoom in the build up.

At 52 Sarah was the oldest on board, with the average age of the team being 42. But the extra years of life experience did little to calm the nerves, and with the swim starting 10.20pm last Thursday night Sarah learnt she was to go out sixth – meaning she wouldn’t get underway until 3.20am the following morning.

“It was tough as that’s a time I tend to hit the wall and with the boat rocking, there was no chance of any sleep.

“I saw seals, dolphins, and too many jelly fish. I stopped counting by about the 15th sting.

“The cold really hit me too. When I heard the klaxon to get out I pulled myself back onto the boat but I couldn’t warm up at all.”

The sea conditions didn’t relent - but it was around the 10 hour mark when the group realised they were on course to finish.

That didn’t make Sarah’s second hour any easier though, and all six swimmers then entered the sea for the finale. Fair to say there was emotion aplenty when they all safely reached the shore.

“It was tiring and a real fight. My advice to anyone doing it would be don’t go in with your eyes closed – it’s not something to be under-estimated.”

And it’s also not something that Sarah says she’ll be doing again anytime soon.

“There are lots of local events which I will continue to support,” she pledged.

“But I don’t think I can better what I did last week. I still feel exhausted.”

And with good reason. As for Sarah more than most, 2020 has been quite the challenge.