Extreme British swimmer reveals it was her autistic son begging 'Don't leave me, Mummy' that ended her epic 7 Oceans challenge and not a circling shark, toxic jellyfish or 20ft swells

  • Beth French aimed to complete the Ocean's 7 challenge in less than a year
  • It involves swimming across seven open-water crossings across the world
  • A film will be released this year to tell the story of 40-year-old Beth's challenge
  • British Beth is a self-employed massage therapist and mother to autistic Dylan

The warm waters of Hawaii’s Molokai Strait shone like silk in the moonlight. The 28-mile stretch between Oahu and Molokai islands, in the North Pacific, is notorious for its 20ft swells, strong currents and deadly marine life, but British swimmer Beth French deftly sliced a path through the swell.

Several hours into the 17-hour swim, one of the world’s most gruelling challenges for extreme swimmers, Beth did not immediately notice the dorsal fin surging upwards from the starlit sea.

But as the 7ft tiger shark went underneath her, so close she was forced to pull her legs upwards, the situation became perilous.

There were ten minutes of terror as the shark circled curiously; only slinking back into the gloom when Beth’s support boat returned. However, it was not the brush with death that haunted Beth afterwards – but the thought she might have left her nine-year-old son, Dylan, without a mother.

Several hours into a 17-hour swim in Hawaii , Beth encountered a shark that circled her - the thought she might have left her nine-year-old Dylan, without a mother scared her 

Several hours into a 17-hour swim in Hawaii , Beth encountered a shark that circled her - the thought she might have left her nine-year-old Dylan, without a mother scared her 

‘I was plunged into crisis,’ she recalls. ‘I thought, “I’m a terrible human being – what am I doing? I have a child. I nearly died.”

‘My mum’s voice was shouting in my ear, “I told you you were putting your life at risk.” ’

It was a unique spot for a parenting crisis. But Beth’s life had become anything but ordinary. The single mother had embarked on an extraordinary challenge that could have propelled her into the record books. 

In anticipation of this, she was trailed by a Bafta-nominated production team that filmed her adventures for a documentary in the style of Touching The Void, the 2003 docudrama about one man’s survival in the Peruvian Andes after a climbing accident.

The film, Ocean’s 7, to be released this year, will tell the story of how Beth, 40, a self-employed massage therapist and mother to Dylan, who is autistic, sought to complete one of the world’s toughest tests of mental and physical endurance, and to become the first person ever to finish it in a single year.

The Ocean’s 7 challenge involves swimming seven open-water crossings, including from Scotland to Ireland across the freezing North Channel, the Cook Strait in New Zealand and the English Channel.

She had completed four of them, facing freezing waters, swarms of toxic jellyfish, towering waves and the threat from shipping traffic. Even without time restraints it is a feat of nerve and resilience; most fail. But in the end, it was an emotional hurdle which stood between Beth and the record books. During her fifth crossing Beth announced that she was giving up her bid – consumed with guilt after Dylan had begged: ‘Please don’t leave me, Mummy. I don’t feel safe.’

Today, Beth explains: ‘The wall I hit in the water that day wasn’t physical, it was a maternal one. I knew in my bones that completing the challenge was possible.

Beth French and son Dylan out on the beach, she said her biggest fear was not surviving the challenge for her autistic son Dylan

Beth French and son Dylan out on the beach, she said her biggest fear was not surviving the challenge for her autistic son Dylan

‘I’d done it to carve out a new role for myself as more than just a mother, but it had to be one that benefited Dylan, too. It made me question what I was doing in the water. Nothing is more important than Dylan.’

At the heart of Beth’s decision lies a familiar tension, albeit one which is more extreme than that faced by the average mother.

Her determination can be explained, in part, by a childhood shadowed by chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME. Growing up on a farm in Somerset, Beth had been an active child until her teens when the illness confined her to a wheelchair.

Following a long period of recovery, she travelled to Ireland and then Hawaii where, in her early 20s, she discovered a love of open-water swimming. She studied indigenous medicine, and travelled to Bali and Thailand.

On returning to the UK, she became pregnant during a short-lived relationship and her adventures were put on hold when Dylan began showing signs of autism.

Then, on a whim, she booked a place to swim the English Channel in 2010. ‘I needed to feel more than just Dylan’s mum, or Beth the massage therapist,’ she says. ‘I craved a new challenge and freedom.’

She trained when she could. There were sessions in a local pool while Dylan napped, and hurried trips to the coast at Lyme Regis for longer swims in the open water on the days her mum could help out.

Her family disapproved. But standing on Shakespeare Beach in Dover at night at the start of her swim, Beth felt at peace.

‘I thought – ironically – this is the only time I’m ever going to do anything this stupid in my life,’ she says. ‘My head was all over the place worrying about Dylan.

‘But then came the sunrise. It was mirror-flat calm, clear. I could see my hands in the soft aqua water, massive tankers and ferries flying past. I thought it would be hell but I loved it.’ She got back home in time to put Dylan to bed.

Inspired, and supported by friends who would look after Dylan, Beth completed the Molokai Strait in Hawaii four months later, despite injuring her left shoulder after 12 hours and ‘doggy-paddling on one arm’ the rest of the way.

Dylan loved the adventure. They swam with dolphins, and hiked in the volcanic tundra. His autistic traits and ticks diminished.

Here, too, Beth began to consider the Ocean’s 7. Back in England, she tried a feat which had never been achieved before – swimming 27 miles, against the current, from Cornwall to the Isles of Scilly. Despite becoming a ‘human pinball’ for jellyfish, she was amazed to find it straightforward.

The planning took nearly three years. A local association for each stretch helps with booking boats and crew – known as ‘pilots’ – and organising dates. The training, too, was gruelling, involving intense mental preparations. ‘Experts reckon channel swimming is 80 per cent mental and emotional.

‘I’d do mental toughness days where I’d not sleep and train in the morning, or not eat all day, then train hard in the evening, so my body got used to exhaustion and hunger.’ Beth jokes being a single mum meant she already had the endurance part nailed.

Nevertheless, the first swim, in October 2016 across the Catalina Strait to Los Angeles, was nearly disastrous. There are sharks and jellyfish, strong tides and currents. But worse – a stomach bug struck three hours into the swim.

‘It should have been a ten-hour swim, but it turned into a 19-hour, six-minute pukefest. It was hell, but I did it. I kept thinking, if I can do this, I can do anything.’

Beth and Dylan returned to Hawaii for the Molokai Strait in December 2016 and, shark notwithstanding, it ‘felt great’.

There were two attempts at the Cook Strait, from New Zealand’s North Island to the South, in February 2017 after strong currents caused the first bid to be abandoned. It meant the relative ease of the ten-mile Strait of Gibraltar, despite the risk from shipping traffic, was a relief. Beth made it to Africa in four and a half hours, and was back in time for lunch.

Physically, she had never felt better. But Dylan was becoming distressed on swim days, when he would be looked after by a friend. He was having nightmares, sleeping in Beth’s bed, and his traits and ticks were re-emerging.

‘His fears were coming out in his behaviour,’ Beth says. ‘He was telling me loud and clear that the swimming was starting to stress him out. When we were alone, he’d say, “Mummy, I’m so proud of you. I believe in you – you’re going to do all of them.” But the day before a swim he’d say, “Please don’t leave me, Mummy – I’m not safe.’’ ’

The day before the fifth crossing, in Northern Japan in July, Dylan hid in their hotel room cupboard. Beth was emotional. After this swim, the next two – the English and North Channels – meant Dylan could stay in their home, and be with family.

But when she got into the water the doubts became all-consuming. ‘After two hours I told the boat I wanted to get out. I’d never done that; not even when I’d come face-to-face with a shark,’ she says. ‘They urged me to give it another hour. I gave them five, until there was four miles left. They said, “If you can get through it, you’ll have broken the record. Then you can tell Dylan he’s more important.”

‘But they didn’t get it. That would have been false and empty. I had to show him he was more important, and that meant stopping there.

‘Back at the hotel, Dylan said, “You’re back early.” When I explained he said, like only an autist can, ‘Well, you’re a bit of a disappointment then.’’ ’

It’s a decision Beth has never regretted; nor does she plan to complete her seven swims. Filming is nearly complete on the documentary, which director Stefan Stuckert from Channel 4’s Peep Show, hopes to release this year.

For now, Beth is content to focus on Dylan. ‘I’m all for learning new things, but water is where the world makes sense to me – it’s my solace.’ 

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