Karen Pickering, MBE and renowned British swimmer, will be visiting K2 Crawley on Friday 16th October to meet local school children. Between 10am – 12pm Karen will be holding two question and answer sessions with local school children from Thomas Bennett Community College aged from 13 – 15.

From 12pm – 1.30pm Karen will be carrying out two 45-minute training sessions in the swimming pool at K2 Crawley. Mr Zoggy, the mascot for Zoggs, will also be there meeting the school children.

Karen Pickering was an outstanding member of the British swimming squad from 1986 to 2005 and has a collection of winning medals that include 8 World Championship medals, 14 European Championship medals, 38 National Championship titles, and a Commonwealth Games medal haul of 13 including 4 Gold. For her services to swimming Karen was awarded an MBE in the 1994 New Years Honours List.

Dave Downey, Community Sports Development Officer at K2 Crawley, said: “We’re really excited to have Karen Pickering visiting the centre. She has achieved some great things in swimming and it will be an opportunity for local school children to meet someone inspirational and learn some swimming tricks off Karen!”

Freedomleisure is a not for profit leisure trust managing 19 leisure and fitness centres across Sussex and Kent, including K2 Crawley, one of the country’s flag-ship leisure centres. From July 2009 new additions to the portfolio included Olympos leisure centres in Burgess Hill, East Grinstead and Haywards Heath, and entertainment venues Clair Hall and Martlets Hall.

For more information on K2 Crawley please visit www.freedom-leisure.co.uk

Media contacts: Becky Hartfield at KBC PR on 01825 76 36 36  becky.hartfield@kbc-pr.com or Karen Burrell, Freedom Leisure’s Head of Marketing on 01825 747710 Karen.Burrell@freedom-leisure.co.uk

For more information on Zoggs please contact Lynda Pepper on Lynda.pepper@zoggs.com or on  07823448741