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American Morning

Five Brothers From Midwest Swim English Channel

Aired August 05, 2003 - 05:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Five brothers from the Midwest have achieved a major accomplishment. They swam the roughly 22 mile English Channel and they did it to bring awareness to a genetic disease their sister suffers with known as Prader-Willi.
One of the brothers, Andrew Roberts, joins us live from London to talk about it.

Good morning, Andrew.

ANDREW ROBERTS, ENGLISH CHANNEL SWIMMER: Good morning.

COSTELLO: How are you feeling?

ROBERTS: Fine. Very good.

COSTELLO: After your long swim, I should say.

Tell us first why you guys decided to do this.

ROBERTS: Well, I think there were many reasons. It was as brothers and growing up swimming, it was just an idea to swim the Channel. It's been an idea for a while. But the idea to do this and the way that we did it, which was a relay format, in recognition of our sister, to honor her for what she's gone through.

COSTELLO: And tell us a little bit about what she's gone through.

ROBERTS: That kind of...

COSTELLO: She has Prader-Willi Syndrome, which means she was born without a chromosome.

ROBERTS: Right. That's right.

COSTELLO: And what happens to you when you're born without that chromosome?

ROBERTS: Well, it affects a number of areas. It's, there's cognitive disabilities. There's emotional/behavioral aspects of it, as well as there's physical aspects of it, as well. People with Prader-Willi have an insatiable appetite and so they need to be in a very controlled environment to prevent obesity, which was a problem with her growing up.

COSTELLO: That's right, because they never feel satisfied, so they just eat to eat, not like most of us.

ROBERTS: That's right.

COSTELLO: Tell us how much weight your sister gained.

ROBERTS: Well, she -- at the time that she was the heaviest was about 10 years ago, when she was first diagnosed with -- when she was finally diagnosed with Prader-Willi. At that time she was 420 pounds. And they also tend to be shorter in stature. So it was even, she was five feet tall, 420 pounds.

COSTELLO: And she did an amazing thing, she lost, what, 300 pounds?

ROBERTS: She lost over 300 pounds. She's now about 140 pounds and she's doing very well.

COSTELLO: OK, and that's why, to celebrate her amazing weight loss, which is even harder for her, you guys decided to swim the English Channel.

ROBERTS: Right. Right.

COSTELLO: So tell us what that was like.

ROBERTS: Well, the actual swim, it was five of us. We did it in a relay format. There are very specific guidelines govern the swim across the channel. There are very specific guidelines and rules.

COSTELLO: Like what?

ROBERTS: We each took -- well, we picked an order for the swim to begin -- beginning the swim we picked an order of the five and we stayed in that order. We all swam hour intervals and stayed in that same order until we reached -- we left Dover, England at around 10:30 on Saturday. And approximately 11 hours and 23 minutes later, we hit shore in France, Catblanc (ph). We hit shore approximately 11 hours and 23 minutes later.

COSTELLO: And it's cold in the water.

ROBERTS: It was. Actually, you get used to it. In the very beginning it's frigid. I mean it's rather cold. It was about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. But, believe it or not, you actually acclimate to that. So this was part of it. We came over early to...

COSTELLO: So what was the hardest part?

ROBERTS: Probably the second leg, because there were five of us and we all took hour intervals. We all had at least two legs. There were actually two brothers, Courtney and Mike, Courtney and Jimmy went first and second. So they had, Courtney had a third leg and Jimmy had a portion of a third leg. Jimmy actually hit shore in France.

But the hardest part was probably the second leg and maybe -- if you asked Courtney it would probably be the third leg, just because it was later in the swim. We had, you know, it was -- we had a good day, but still it was cold and I think the later swims were probably the hardest.

COSTELLO: Yes.

Congratulations to you.

And if people want to know about the Prader-Willi...

ROBERTS: Well, thank you.

COSTELLO: If people want to know more about the Prader-Willi Syndrome, who can they contact?

ROBERTS: There is an association. There's a chapter in the United States, the P.W. -- it's in the international Prader-Willi site there's a link to the U.S. site. It's IPWSO, Internationalprader- willisyndromeorganization.org. So they can find the link to the U.S. chapter or other chapters. And, also, they can find a link to our swim, which gives a little bit more explanation on what we did and bios and Patty's story. And there's pictures and video clips, so they can find a lot of information there.

COSTELLO: All right, Andrew Roberts, thanks for joining us live.

We appreciate it.

ROBERTS: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And congratulations to your brothers and especially to your sister.

ROBERTS: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 5, 2003 - 05:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Five brothers from the Midwest have achieved a major accomplishment. They swam the roughly 22 mile English Channel and they did it to bring awareness to a genetic disease their sister suffers with known as Prader-Willi.
One of the brothers, Andrew Roberts, joins us live from London to talk about it.

Good morning, Andrew.

ANDREW ROBERTS, ENGLISH CHANNEL SWIMMER: Good morning.

COSTELLO: How are you feeling?

ROBERTS: Fine. Very good.

COSTELLO: After your long swim, I should say.

Tell us first why you guys decided to do this.

ROBERTS: Well, I think there were many reasons. It was as brothers and growing up swimming, it was just an idea to swim the Channel. It's been an idea for a while. But the idea to do this and the way that we did it, which was a relay format, in recognition of our sister, to honor her for what she's gone through.

COSTELLO: And tell us a little bit about what she's gone through.

ROBERTS: That kind of...

COSTELLO: She has Prader-Willi Syndrome, which means she was born without a chromosome.

ROBERTS: Right. That's right.

COSTELLO: And what happens to you when you're born without that chromosome?

ROBERTS: Well, it affects a number of areas. It's, there's cognitive disabilities. There's emotional/behavioral aspects of it, as well as there's physical aspects of it, as well. People with Prader-Willi have an insatiable appetite and so they need to be in a very controlled environment to prevent obesity, which was a problem with her growing up.

COSTELLO: That's right, because they never feel satisfied, so they just eat to eat, not like most of us.

ROBERTS: That's right.

COSTELLO: Tell us how much weight your sister gained.

ROBERTS: Well, she -- at the time that she was the heaviest was about 10 years ago, when she was first diagnosed with -- when she was finally diagnosed with Prader-Willi. At that time she was 420 pounds. And they also tend to be shorter in stature. So it was even, she was five feet tall, 420 pounds.

COSTELLO: And she did an amazing thing, she lost, what, 300 pounds?

ROBERTS: She lost over 300 pounds. She's now about 140 pounds and she's doing very well.

COSTELLO: OK, and that's why, to celebrate her amazing weight loss, which is even harder for her, you guys decided to swim the English Channel.

ROBERTS: Right. Right.

COSTELLO: So tell us what that was like.

ROBERTS: Well, the actual swim, it was five of us. We did it in a relay format. There are very specific guidelines govern the swim across the channel. There are very specific guidelines and rules.

COSTELLO: Like what?

ROBERTS: We each took -- well, we picked an order for the swim to begin -- beginning the swim we picked an order of the five and we stayed in that order. We all swam hour intervals and stayed in that same order until we reached -- we left Dover, England at around 10:30 on Saturday. And approximately 11 hours and 23 minutes later, we hit shore in France, Catblanc (ph). We hit shore approximately 11 hours and 23 minutes later.

COSTELLO: And it's cold in the water.

ROBERTS: It was. Actually, you get used to it. In the very beginning it's frigid. I mean it's rather cold. It was about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. But, believe it or not, you actually acclimate to that. So this was part of it. We came over early to...

COSTELLO: So what was the hardest part?

ROBERTS: Probably the second leg, because there were five of us and we all took hour intervals. We all had at least two legs. There were actually two brothers, Courtney and Mike, Courtney and Jimmy went first and second. So they had, Courtney had a third leg and Jimmy had a portion of a third leg. Jimmy actually hit shore in France.

But the hardest part was probably the second leg and maybe -- if you asked Courtney it would probably be the third leg, just because it was later in the swim. We had, you know, it was -- we had a good day, but still it was cold and I think the later swims were probably the hardest.

COSTELLO: Yes.

Congratulations to you.

And if people want to know about the Prader-Willi...

ROBERTS: Well, thank you.

COSTELLO: If people want to know more about the Prader-Willi Syndrome, who can they contact?

ROBERTS: There is an association. There's a chapter in the United States, the P.W. -- it's in the international Prader-Willi site there's a link to the U.S. site. It's IPWSO, Internationalprader- willisyndromeorganization.org. So they can find the link to the U.S. chapter or other chapters. And, also, they can find a link to our swim, which gives a little bit more explanation on what we did and bios and Patty's story. And there's pictures and video clips, so they can find a lot of information there.

COSTELLO: All right, Andrew Roberts, thanks for joining us live.

We appreciate it.

ROBERTS: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And congratulations to your brothers and especially to your sister.

ROBERTS: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com