British-SA endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh to attempt first-ever swim across Red Sea

British-South African endurance swimmer and UN Patron of the Oceans, Lewis Pugh, is aiming to become the first person in the world to swim across the Red Sea later this month.

The 160km swim will begin from Saudi Arabia to Hurghada in Egypt and is expected to take him two weeks to complete. Lewis will swim approximately 10 km each day.

Born in the UK but educated at St Andrew's College, Camps Bay High School and the University of Cape Town in South Africa, Pugh swam to Robben Island when he was just 17 years old.

The 52-year-old uses his record-breaking endurance swims to highlight the plight of the ocean, particularly the dangers of pollution and overfishing.

The swim will highlight the vulnerability of coral reefs due to the accelerating Climate Crisis and, along the way, Pugh will pass Sharm el-Sheikh, where world leaders will be gathering for the UN Climate Conference (COP27) in November.

He will not only be swimming over some of the most precious coral in the world, he will also be swimming across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes leading to the Suez Canal.

Pugh will be urging all nations to drastically cut their emissions, to tackle the climate crisis and protect the world's oceans. He will also call for 30% of the world's oceans to be protected by 2030.

Pugh is known for swimming in some of the coldest waters on the planet but he will be swimming in some of the world's warmest.

"I've been swimming in the world's oceans for 35 years, and during that time I've seen them change dramatically," Pugh says.

"The biggest changes I've seen are in the Polar Regions, and in coral reefs. Both are affected by rising temperatures: the poles are melting, and the coral is dying.

"Ice and coral are the Ground Zeros of the Climate