An adventure a year in the making...

This time last year my Australian cousin Ben messaged me, asking if I wanted to be part of an English Channel relay team. "Hell no!" was my first response, but very quickly I remembered I was soon to be 50, and if I didn't do it now, when would I have the chance again? A year later, having swum a lot of miles in the pool, sea, rivers and lakes, and taken advantage of all my swimming friends to keep me company, we are fast approaching our swimming 'slot'.

A channel relay involves a team (in our case 6 of us) taking it in turns to each swim for an hour, until we cover the 22 miles from Dover to France. At all times we are accompanied by a boat with an experienced pilot and crew who will navigate us through the busy shipping lane (fingers crossed).

All the rest of my team are from Australia so my swim training has been carried out remotely with them - our coach Mike Gregory, sending us all weekly programmes to complete, with LOTS of WhatsApp chats, so I feel like I'm part of the gang already. I can't wait to actually meet them all in person!

I would love it if you could help me raise money for 2 charities that are very important to me.

The first is Kids for Kids - a charity transforming the lives of children, families and whole communities in war-torn Darfur. You can read more here:- https://www.kidsforkids.org.uk/

The other is Hector's House - a very dear friend lost her husband to suicide this year, and this charity not only aim to prevent suicide and promote mental health awareness, but has provided support and counselling to the family, You can read more here:- https://hectorshouse.org.uk/

If your loyalties lie more with Australia, then the rest of the team are fundraising for two Aussie mental health charities - How's Ya Mate and Lifeline Broken Hill Country to Coast - https://ben-and-brendans-channel-attack.raisely.com

When I'm swimming through jellyfish, and dodging ferries (and I don't even want to think about what else) the thought that each stroke is helping contribute something to these charities will be really inspiring and keep me slogging on.

Thank you!