Learning to swim as an adult inspires 5km fundraising challenge
Bryony Grey decided to learn to swim as an adult to keep up with her grandkids and has now taken on an endurance challenge for helicopter rescue service LifeFlight.
Bryony Gray spent the first four decades of her life with little to no confidence in the water.
That changed when she bought a home with a pool on the Sunshine Coast, which coincided with her becoming a grandparent.
"I was thinking the grandkids [will] learn to swim, so I wanted to be able to swim with them," Ms Gray said.
"I could kind of breaststroke but never put my face in the water … I'd never had swimming lessons as a kid or anything."
In 2018, at the age of 45, she mustered the courage to take part in her first adult swimming lesson and recalled the alien feeling of learning how to blow bubbles in the water.
"I still remember standing in the shallow end, having to put my face in the water and breathe, and completely hyperventilating and panicking and thinking, 'Oh my God, what am I doing?'" Ms Gray said.
Bryony's biggest swim
Six years ago, Ms Gray was celebrating completing one lap of an Olympic-size swimming pool.
In November, she took on a 100-lap challenge in honour of the LifeFlight Helicopter Rescue Service, which rescued her husband after a motorbike crash.
Aaron Gray kept a tally of his wife's laps. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Braedan Jason)
Aaron Gray had been riding his new motorbike on the Bruce Highway near Cooroy in 2024 when he collided with a truck.
The Grays reunited with the LifeFlight crew almost one year on from the accident to witness Ms Gray's 5 kilometre effort to raise funds for the rescue service.
Damien Storiewood was the flight critical care paramedic who arrived at the scene, and he was on hand in November to help his former patient keep a tally of Ms Gray's lap count.
Aaron and Bryony Gray reunite with LifeFlight crew members Ben Reegan (left) and Damien Storiewood. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Braedan Jason)
"Seeing Aaron 12 months later is a bit of a miracle in regards to how he's come through at all because he had a lot of injuries: closed-head injuries, chest, then lower-limb injuries," Mr Storiewood said.
"But to see him up and walking and with it is quite amazing and it's probably the best part of our job is seeing these patients down the track.