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Pensioner swims into pool history
From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Friday 21st Apr 2006.
FORMER polisher and welder Ron Dickens has made a little piece of history for the Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool.
Mr Dickens, 74, has just become the 750,000th recorded user of the pool having been a regular attendee since it first opened in 1979.
He visits the pool two or three times a week and says it is the reason for his good health, despite his arthritis.
"There is no cure for what I have," said Mr Dickens, a widower of Wheeler Avenue.
"But I think if it wasn't for this place, I'd probably be in a wheelchair now.
"It keeps me mobile and on my feet, but it's also been very relaxing for my muscles too.
"I'll get in the pool and take a walk across the width and then get together with friends and have a natter, it's like a big social club really.
"The pool might be warm but so is the friendship as well, and not just with the people at the pool but the staff are fantastic too.
"Even though there have been a few changes over the years they have always managed to find the right people for the job.
"If you don't turn up one day, you usually end up getting a phone call the next day asking how you are and if your car doesn't start someone will come out and try and help."
The pool opened in 1979 and was used by seven adult disabled groups, and eight schools with special needs units, while GPs made 5,000 referrals for individual patients.
Today the pool helps 29 adult groups, 15 schools and has 35,000 referral sessions each year not just patients from Swindon, but also from Oxford, Bristol and Bath.
Peter Jones, the chairman of the Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool Association, said: "This truly is a landmark day for the Hydrotherapy Pool.
"It was a very quiet start for it back in 1979, but now it is helping thousands of people each year by referral from their GPs or doctors.
"It's also amazing to think that Ron has been here almost since the beginning we have very few patients left like him."
To celebrate, Mr Dickens was presented with a certificate and a magnum of champagne by the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, John Bush.
He will also be given free use of the pool for the rest of his life.
"I couldn't quite believe it when they told me I was the 750,000th user, it shows that the place has gone from strength to strength over the years," said Mr Dickens.
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