Tenby’s famous Boxing Day Swim has been twice put out of the water by Covid restrictions, but that hasn’t stopped the tradition of the event in helping good causes.

The 2021 swim was poised to splash out to mark its 50th anniversary, but had to be cancelled with just seven days to go.

Thanks to the generosity of the sponsors and a number of entrants who donated their entry money, nearly £1,000 was in the kitty and this has now been shared with the three organisations who were named as headline charities.

Swim chairman Chris Osborne has now presented cheques for £350 each to Tenby RNLI; the Tenby Memory Café, which holds weekly events for those living with dementia; and the Dai Rees Foundation – a charity set up in memory of swim regular, paramedic Dai Rees, formerly of Saundersfoot, which provides pre-hospital emergency cover in the Maldives and Nepal.

With a reminder that the 50th anniversary Tenby Boxing Day Swim is set to take place this Christmas, all being well, Chris said: “We thought the extra funds would be more helpful in the hands of our beneficiaries than sitting in our own bank account so it made sense to have a pre-swim handover. That’s a first for us!

“Now we’re hoping it’ll be third time lucky to run the swim, its golden 50th anniversary version.”