Neil Agius has officially completed the Gozitan Wave of Change challenge, swimming around the entire sister island in just 10 hours and two minutes.

He is the first to make it back after five brave swimmers jumped into the sea at 3.15am this morning as part of a campaign to highlight the plastic pollution that is harming Malta’s, and the world’s, seas and oceans.

The five swimmers – Richard Zerafa, Neil Agius, Steven Grech, Andrew Azzopardi and Hannah Cutajar – have been training for the challenge in the run-up to the big day, and wore a protective layer of special cream to ensure they could swim for as long as their bodies would let them – and maybe even a bit further than that.

The Wave Of Change campaign hopes to draw attention to the sheer amount of plastic making it into our seas

The campaign, which started out as a challenge between friends to go to the beach and pick up three pieces of trash, has snowballed into a national campaign supported by politicians, businesses, and a large number of individuals.

Tag someone who needs to do this next year!

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