An 86-year-old champion of Tooting Bec Lido has been named as the BBC London Sports Unsung Hero for 2009.
Doreen Fitch dedicated herself to the open-air pool on Tooting Bec Common since 1943, when she married her Lido enthusiast husband Bob.
Since then the Furzedown resident has led two successful campaigns to keep the venue open and has become a much-loved character for local swimmers.
Mrs Fitch said: “I couldn’t believe anything like that could happen to me. They’re my family at the Lido.
“They’re all very kind and very pleasant. You don’t get any back-biting. No feuds, no anything.
“It does fill my life.”
She and her husband got involved in the South London Swimming Club (SLSC) in the 1940s, and later created the Bec Swimming Club, teaching hundreds of children from the borough to swim.
The two also helped save the Lido when it was threatened with closure, organising a march on the council in 1978.
In 1990 they led another successful campaign to save the pool.
Her husband died in 2001, but she has remained actively involved with the SLSC and the Lido and is passionate about keeping it open for Wandsworth’s future generations.
She has been the membership secretary since 1991, and works for the Lido for 30 hours a week, six days a week.
Her dedication even led her to learn how to use a computer at the age of 80, making it easier to maintain the club database, which now has at least 1,000 members.
She added: “I’m too busy to swim. I can swim, but only in warm water – mainly in the bath.”
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