Guinness Record holder Matt Frame To Attempt 24-Hour Handcuffed Swim For Jay Leno

    /24-7PressRelease/ - SIHANOUKVILLE, Kompong Som, Cambodia, December 03, 2006 - It didn't take long for Canadian Matt Frame, current holder of the Guinness Record for World's Longest Handcuffed Swim, to come to grips with the reality that his six-hour, 5.8km handcuffed doggy paddle on November 21 was, ultimately, a failure.

"Sure I broke the record but I never cared about that," declared 34-year old Frame, an award-winning filmmaker and journalist from Vancouver. "The swim was solely about raising money to school underprivileged Cambodian children. Unfortunately, in the ten days since the swim we have raised exactly $0."

Frame is the director of the Joe Bodia Foundation, a Cambodian-based independent NGO whose primary goal is the schooling of the neediest children in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, the coastal town Frame has been living in for the past 19 months. Thus far the Joe Bodia Foundation has paid tuition for 50 children to attend school for the next six months.

"It's a decent start," said Frame, "but I am not satisfied with that number. There are far too many kids here who desperately want to learn so they can achieve a better quality of life. The day that we need to advertise to find students will be the day that I will be content to move onto something else."

Is a 24-hour non-stop handcuffed swim possible, though?

"If I didn't believe I could do it I wouldn't consider it," explained Frame. "Will it be easy? No. However, is it worth a try if it can help me to attain my goals? Absolutely."

Asked how a Tonight Show appearance could assist him in reaching his Foundation's goals, Frame commented, "If somebody achieves a world record for running backwards across the state of Nevada and they are doing it for diabetes awareness, ultimately the diabetes thing gets lost in the mix. An appearance on the Tonight Show would allow me the opportunity to properly explain why I engaged in this stunt: I am a stubborn guy willing to go to extraordinary lengths to achieve my goals, which right now happen to be the schooling of needy Cambodian kids. I believe people will connect with that in a much stronger fashion than by just reading about the swim as the 'oddity of the day' story in their newspaper."

Why the Tonight Show with Jay Leno?

"If you do an Internet search on the top primetime talk show hosts in America, you'll see that the words 'Leno' and 'Charity' are mentioned more together than all the others combined. He is obviously a decent and reasonable guy. If anybody is going to understand the bigger picture of what I am doing, my money is on him."

When asked why Frame chose Christmas to attempt his handcuffed marathon he answers: "I can't think of a more appropriate day. Can you?"

www.swimforleno.com

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