More than 1,700 people who were previously excluded from public swimming pools have been supported into using them.

The initiative, led by Places Leisure and the charity Face Everything and Rise (FEAR), has been helping those who are artificially fed or medicated via a central line to swim since 2023.

Places Leisure runs Romsey Rapids, which is one of the centres that hosts the swimming events.

The initiative was highly commended at the UKActive Awards in the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Award category.

Mark Haslam, head of swimming and sports at Places Leisure, said: "The ability to go for a swim at a public pool is something that most of the population take for granted but those reliant on a central line have been marginalised for too long."

Founder of FEAR, Kim Purkis, said: "To have a leading leisure company like Places Leisure fully support the use of drysuits across their pools is huge.

"In a short space of time, we have been able to make huge strides and have offered more than one thousand people the chance to swim in a public pool which for far too long has been impossible or daunting."