DOVER, England, Aug. 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Supported by the CMO Council and other boosters, 18-year-old Amber-Rose Berry of Pringle Bay, near Cape Town, has made history as the youngest-ever South African woman to swim the iconic English Channel.
She completed 33 km on what is known to be one of the world’s most grueling open-water crossings, in just 10 hours 27. (This remains unofficial until her time is ratified.) And she did so while battling strong currents, painful jellyfish stings and waves from the massive wake of a ship.
Besides making a new record for Amber-Rose, the swim has already raised over $7,000 for a fundraising campaign to help support the Ukukhula Institute in Makhanda, to provide scholarships for disadvantaged student-athletes from Eastern Cape high schools to attend Rhodes University.
‘That was bloody tough,’ said Amber-Rose, from the boat, shortly after her swim, ‘but I was motivated by the opportunity I was given to complete this swim. And by the fact that, by finishing, so many opportunities would be afforded to student-athletes like myself.’
Amber-Rose left Shakespeare Beach, Dover, at 5.27 am on August 23 and landed on the rocks at Pte du Riden, near Cap Griz Nez, France, at 3.54 pm. She made excellent time through the swim, despite being painfully stung early on by jellyfish. Just over the halfway point, she flagged and lost energy. She was tired and cold, and there was still so far to go. But her training and resilience kicked in - she stuck at it and kept going.
‘It was about then that she had to battle through the huge wake of a ship,’ said Karen Berry, Amber-Rose’s mother. ‘Funnily enough, that just seemed to energise her.”
The average completion window for the crossing is between 12 and 14 hours, so Amber-Rose’s time places her well ahead of average, in an elite tier of Channel swimmers. “It was a well-executed swim,’ said Karen, ‘with a strong start, very strong ending, and a lot of challenges in the middle.’
Karen championed her onboard the escort vessel, Sea Leopard. ‘She received huge support from her boat support, pilots and supporters, whose messages were shared with her during feeds.’
Amber-Rose fed on the hour for the first two hours, then every 30 minutes. Feeds were liquid and had to be taken quickly. As soon as you stop moving on the Channel, you start drifting. Her swim follows months of intense training under the guidance of coach Clinton le Seuer, well-known open-water swimmer in his own right.
Amber-Rose has made history once before. While only 16, she was entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest person ever to make Cape Town’s 33km False Bay crossing. She completed the crossing, solo, in 9 hours 40. And she did so without a wetsuit, in just a costume in a cap.
Her English Channel swim was completed exactly 100 years since Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the channel in 1926, and in South Africa’s Women’s Month, 70 years after the pivotal women’s march against the Pass Laws, which gave August its name.
She follows another record-breaking South African, Otto Thaning, who became the oldest person, at 73, to complete the swim, in 2014. His record still stands.
The fund-raising campaign launched in her name carries the slogan: Believe in What You Can Achieve. Which is exactly what Amber-Rose continued to do through all the months of training, and all the hours she spent alone, just her and the ocean. Please support her cause at the link below:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-amber-rose-swim-the-channel-and-inspire-youth
About CMO Council
Marking its 25th Anniversary in 2026, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership, and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The CMO Council’s 16,000+ members control more than $1 trillion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 65,000 global marketing and sales executives in over 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council’s strategic interest groups include the Customer Experience Board, Digital Marketing Performance Center, Brand Inspiration Center, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, GeoBranding Center, and the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE). To learn more, visit https://www.cmocouncil.org.
Contact:
Donovan Neale-May
donovan@cmocouncil.org
