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The crowdfunding project aimed at bringing back "wild swimming" to a lake in Broomfield Park this week hit the headlines both regionally (Metro and Time Out) and nationally - it had the dubious honour of a headline in the Sun: "London duck pond set to be converted into a swimming lake" (rather staid wording by Sun standards, maybe the print headline was a bit more amusing or racier).

The reason for all this publicity was the announcement by the Mayor of London's office that Broomfield Pond Swim Society's project is one of 23 crowdfunding proposals that the Mayor has pledged to support - in this case to the tune of £40,000.

For the money pledged by the Mayor and by hundreds of other backers to actually be forthcoming, the amount pledged has to reach £121,272 by 12th August - this is the amount needed for phase 1 of the project.  So far, £47,092 has been pledged, so the Society needs many more lovers of Broomfield Park and wild swimming to pledge some money and let their friends and families know about the idea.