When he’s not in the middle of an East End drama, lifelong RNLI supporter Steve McFadden heads west for coastal adventure

What does a soap star treat himself to on his 50th birthday? The latest electronic gadget? A big night out in the city? A luxury cruise? Not Steve McFadden, the EastEnders actor of some 20 years. He decided to swim a mile across open water in aid of his favourite charity.

‘It was a great moment for me,’ remembers Steve, who first swam across the River Fal in Cornwall in Summer 2009. It was his perfect celebration – the right place, the right event, the right cause. ‘I reached the other side before my family and friends arrived by boat and sat on the beach, looking out at the water. It gave me time to look back at how far I’d come.’

The actor’s father was evacuated from London to Cornwall in the Second World War, and brought Steve there as a child on holiday. ‘I learned how to catch mackerel, and from that I fell in love with boating,’ explains Steve, who continued to visit Cornwall in his teenage years. His passion for boating later led to work as a skipper, taking yachts to the Mediterranean for wealthy clients. ‘Sailing abroad helped me to realise that the RNLI is unique. There’s nothing else like it in the world.’

After putting his travelling days behind him, Steve returned to London in the 1980s and trained as an actor. He had several TV and film roles before landing a part in EastEnders in 1990. ‘As I got a good regular income, I bought myself a boat or two. But I found that, the more money I spent, the further I was getting away from the water. I realised I wasn’t enjoying it as much,’ says Steve. ‘I want to feel the spray on my face and be near to the water, not be worrying about whether the air conditioning is working or changing a bulb in the forward cabin. I want to engage with the sea.’

That determination to stay close to the water led Steve to structure his spare evenings, weekends and holidays around boating: he has small, simple craft on the Thames, at Falmouth and in Mallorca. And it was one weekend fishing trip in Cornwall that led to him getting even closer.

‘I was motoring out of Falmouth Marina and, about 50m out, we saw a yacht aground with the tide coming out. So we gave the sailor a tow off, and she waved in thanks. Me and my mate were patting ourselves on the back when this police boat comes up to us at the harbour mouth, and we got told to slow down because there were swimmers in the water. They were swimming from Pendennis Castle to St Mawes Castle, across the river. That stretch of water seemed like the whole ocean to me when I was 6 years old. And I said to my mate: “What a great thing that’d be to do one day.”’

In May 2009, that day came. Steve tackled his first open-water swim, crossing the River Fal in an RNLI fundraising event in aid of the South West Lifeguard appeal. ‘It was quite choppy with a swell running and it made the going tough,’ recalls Steve, who was one of the 38 swimmers who completed the mile-long swim. He repeated the feat a year later, this time joining 230 others and helping to raise more than £10,000 for the RNLI.

Now Steve swims a mile every night, and is looking forward to more open water events. ‘It’s not about conquering the sea, it’s about getting in it, and respecting it, integrating with it. It’s about spending time in a coastal community, and it’s about helping to make a difference. We should cherish and nurture the RNLI, because something like that could disappear – it’s so good for young people to see the behaviour of volunteers who are professional, and passionate, and courageous. It’s taken lifetimes for it to develop, and it’d be a terrible thing if it evaporated.’

If you would like to take on a challenge and fundraise in aid of the RNLI, see rnli.org.uk/inaidof.