I created a mass Marilyn Monroe swim for my mother
Sarah Tinney started one of Australia’s biggest open-water swims as a way of dealing with grief. All of the swimmers dress up as Marilyn Monroe, her mother’s favourite film star.
In 2013, Sarah Tinney agreed to do a charity swim dressed as Marilyn Monroe. But as the only one in fancy dress, she panicked and tried to rope in others. The swim was a tribute to her mother, a Marilyn Monroe movie devotee, who’d died of cancer. And over the years, what started as a a ragtag group of swimmers in southern Australia transformed into a world record-breaking event, raising almost a million dollars for cancer research. (This interview was first broadcast in April 2022)
Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Maryam Maruf
(Picture: Sarah Tinney at the Marilyn Jetty Swim. Photo credit: Courtesy of Cancer Council SA.)
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