We recently shared that we’d like to start highlighting our members each month and we had a great response. Thank you to everyone who agreed to share their story with us so far. If you’d like to be featured, please email us at folkestoneseasauna@gmail.com and we will be in touch.
Up first: Sarah!
Tell us a little about yourself?
I’m Sarah, I’m 52 and don’t live in Folkestone but 25 minutes away in Charing west of Ashford. I own a couple of holiday homes which I let out, one round the corner from the sauna on the high street and the other one in Hythe near Waitrose.
I’m a lifelong outdoor swimmer and, like my 83-year-old mum, enjoy swimming for pleasure. I’m not competitive but did swim a relay channel swim in 2022 and completed an extreme ice kilometre in 2024 (in water of 1C).
My children are 21 and 18. I’m about to get my daughter Amelie back from uni and my youngest, Max, is about to go.
When I’m not looking after my kids or my mum I enjoy long walks with my dog Roxy. She loves the sauna and patiently waits for me tied to the post by the water shoes until it’s time to run down to the beach for a dip.
When did you join the sea sauna?
I’ve been on the sauna project since near the beginning as I swim year round at Mermaid and realised it would be an asset and help me train for ice swimming in the winter. I’m lucky enough to have my own peg: ‘There’s always Hope!’
What do you love most about the sauna?
My favourite part is the friendly faces, people you bump into and the deep conversations you have in the sauna. It’s a leveller in there. Doesn’t matter your past or who you are or what you do. We are all in it together as a community.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I’m a fledgling artist and enjoy producing seascapes in glass of the sea around the sauna. I’ve gifted one to the sauna so hopefully it’ll be on a wall somewhere soon.
