News & Events / Brown Gal Can’t Swim: Summaya Mughal aims to get South Asian women swimming
Brown Gal Can’t Swim: Summaya Mughal aims to get South Asian women swimming
Oct 10 2022
Left to Right: Summaya Mughal and Alice Dearing. Image: Charlie Firth
Nottingham-born and raised Summaya Mughal, a BBC presenter and podcaster for BBC Radio Sounds and Radio Leicester is presenting a five-part series which explores why many South Asian women are less likely to swim.
The series, Brown Gal Can’t Swim (BGCS), will see Summaya take on swimming challenges set by Olympians Rebecca Adlington and Alice Dearing. She said: “I’ve spent over 20 years embarrassed about not having a skill it feels like kids have”.
Breaking down barriers and misconceptions
Statistics from Swim England show people from black and Asian backgrounds are less likely to swim than those from white communities, with 49% of black and Asian communities unable to swim 25m unaided.
Summaya aims to break down misconceptions about swimming and encourage members of the South Asian community to get behind her campaign and learn to swim.
About the journey itself, Summaya says: “It has tested me physically and emotionally but I’m hoping it makes a difference and encourages others to learn to swim too. After all, it could save your life.”
As part of the BGCS project Summaya is challenged to swim 50m in a swimming pool by Rebecca Adlington and 500m in open water by Alice Dearing in just eight weeks – will she do it? Keep listening to the BGCS podcast daily from Monday 10 October 2022.
Listen to Episode One of Summaya’s podcast here.
Importance of learning to swim
Did you know swimming is the only sport which could save your life, according to Swim England.
Swimming is a tremendous amount of fun for all people of all ages and children, especially, who enjoy getting into the water. But it is important to swim safely. Check out our blog for the importance of learning to swim, you can read it here.
Good luck with the campaign Summaya, Active Nottingham and Nottingham Swim School is proud to work with you on this project and we all look forward to seeing more about it in the next few days!