Business leaders take the plunge for Marie Curie in east Antrim

The company leaders entered the water off the Ballygally coast on September 27, raising the money for Marie Curie during The Rising Tide Network event.

The Rising Tide Network is a monthly networking event with a difference, where local business owners are encouraged to “leave their stress in the sea” while connecting with others along the way.

The events are run by Ciaran May of Natural Resilience. Ciaran is a former international athlete, having represented Northern Ireland in weightlifting. He now consults to some of the top companies in the UK and Ireland on human performance and wellbeing.

Ciaran explained: “We’ve been running these events for the past three years. The levels of stress, loneliness and disconnection felt by business owners, post-Covid is well documented and we wanted to do something about it.

"For me, spending time in nature, in the sea and having conversations and connecting with like-minded people is an absolute game changer and so I decided to package that and introduce the concept as an unconventional way to network.

"It’s been a huge success with us now running these events throughout three different locations in Northern Ireland. Our flagship event takes place in Ballygally Castle Hotel.

"The location’s perfect with the hotel itself, the stunning backdrop and the clean beach and sea. We take 25 business owners each time.

"They swap their business clothes for dry robes and small talk for authentic conversations. We meet in one of the function rooms with tea and coffee and everyone gets a minute to say who they are and what they do.

"They’re shown breathing techniques to allow them to keep calm in the cold water and then we walk across the road and enter the sea together.

"You don’t need to swim; we walk into the sea until we are up to our naval and then we submerge together controlling the breath. The thought process is, if you can control your breath here and become comfortable in an uncomfortable environment, you can do it in the boardroom, at work, or at home.

"We hire a wood fired sauna to heat everyone up after then it’s back to the hotel for breakfast and two guest speakers. With our speakers each month our tagline is ‘real people with real stories.’

“Our two speakers on September 27 were Sonya Mc Aleer and Mark Hanna. Sonya’s a former professional show jumper turned confidence coach spoke of how having the courage to be authentic allowed her to become confident in herself and how she now works with female leaders to help them do the same.

"Mark’s the Managing Director of Mascott Construction and an ambassador for Marie Curie. Mark gave a humbling and emotional talk on how the death of his father-in-law in 2008 prompted him on his fundraising journey for Marie Curie.

"Since then he’s climbed Everest, ran dozens of marathons, iron men and other endurance events around the world to raise funds and awareness for Marie Curie. We were honoured we could donate all proceeds on the day to Mark’s ongoing campaigning.”

For more information, check out www.natural-resilience.co.uk