Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. 

To sponsor me click the Donate button and follow the instructions. Alternatively you can sponsor me by texting the message GBFR47 then £5 [or £10] ie GBFR47 £10 to 70070.You will receive a confirmation text asking for Gift Aid, this is also your opportunity to leave a personal message. You can of course txt as many times as you like!! Every penny I raise through sponsorship will go to BIBIC. Please click on 'Read more of my story' below for an insight into why I'm attempting to swim the English Channel and why I'm supporting BIBIC.

My Story - For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Adrian (Ade) Radford and I’m a 50 year old Civil Servant who works in Yeovil in Somerset and lives in the small village of Montacute. My main passion is rugby and I captained and played for Yeovil Rugby Club and then Ivel Barbarians for about twenty years, retiring around 2006 due to injury. Since then, many of my rugby colleagues have also retired and moved on to marathons, long distance cycling and (typically) triathlons, raising significant amounts of money for charitable causes in the process. Unfortunately, because my body is incapable of such physical activity I’ve had to watch on enviously whilst getting drunk, for 5 years!!! Fuelled by jealousy (and cider) this had to change…….

 

The main turning point came in September 2011 when I was out drinking with a close friend. It was around 10:30 (pm not am) and after about 7 pints of cider that we decided to do something for a local children’s charity. Both of us being rather competitive also agreed that whatever we did needed to ‘trump’ anything our other retired rugby friends had done. The choice was limited by the condition of our rugby battered bodies but after much soul searching (and a few more ciders) we came to the conclusion that swimming the English Channel would do it and should attract enough attention to raise around £5000. The following morning however, in the cold light of day, the enormity of this challenge dawned on us both and we quickly concluded that it was a stupid idea and we needed a rethink; cider’s great for making you believe you have superhuman powers! Unfortunately, using his SMART phone (which I don’t think is so SMART now) and FaceBook, my close friend had the previous night informed everybody of our intentions and my mum, a dedicated FaceBook follower, rang about an hour after we concluded it was a stupid idea to say how proud of me she was. Well as you can imagine, I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was the drink speaking and I proceeded to dig myself a real deep hole by saying this is something I have always dreamt of doing, I’m dedicating the next two years of my life to it and I was determined to raise a significant amount of money to help needy children etc. This only made her prouder and at one point during the call I imagined her wiping tears away from her eyes. This of course made it impossible for me to say, “mum, I was drunk, it’s a stupid idea”. As soon as I put the phone down I was straight on to my close friend to convince him that that given time and the right training it was possible for two non-swimming, ex –rugby playing, 50 year olds with limited mobility to swim the English Channel. Unfortunately, my close friend’s mother is not a dedicated FaceBook follower (you know where this is going) and he hadn’t received a similar call and no matter how much I tried to persuade him to go through with it he remained adamant that it was a stupid idea (deep down I agreed). His last words to me before abruptly putting his phone down were “you’re on your own with this one mate, good luck”. He is of course no longer a close mate, just a mate.

 

Consequently I’ve now been training for 15 months and have already swam almost 17000 lengths of the local swimming pool and spent over 30 hours sea swimming. This equates to approximately 500 Km swam to date. My training plan will take these figures up to around 34000 lengths and 80 hrs of sea swimming, roughly 1100 Km swam by the time I attempt the channel. Planning the swim is also well advanced with my Pilot boat now booked and the swim registered with the Channel Swimming Association (CSA). The Pilot boat is mandatory and guides you across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and pulls you out if you get into difficulties whilst the CSA provide an observer to ensure the swim is undertaken in accordance with the long standing rules which simply are; for it to be recognised as an official crossing, swimmers are only allowed to wear one pair of swimming trunks, goggles and a plastic swimming cap and at no point during the crossing is the swimmer allowed to touch the pilot boat. My planned crossing date is on the August 12 Neap Tide and I hope to finish it within 15hrs.

 

Hopefully this gives you an insight into my personal reasons for taking on this challenge and demonstrates to you just how committed I am. I will of course post monthly updates on my training/preparation here, on my JustGiving webpage should you want to follow my progress.

 

Why am I supporting BIBIC?

 

Firstly, who are BIBIC? Well at risk of repeating what’s on their web site (WWW.bibic.org.uk) The British Institute for Brain Injured Children is a national charity offering practical help to families caring for children with conditions like autism, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, developmental delay, brain injury, and specific learning difficulties like ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia. They specialise in understanding the causes of challenging behavior and can even offer support if a child has not been diagnosed with a condition.

 

Secondly why am I supporting BIBIC? Well, in the main all children’s charities do good work and quite frankly I could have chosen any one safe in the knowledge that my targeted £5K would be put to good use. This made deciding which charity to support very difficult and I spent many hours on the internet reading about the numerous charities and the work they do. I eventually came across the BIBIC website and having passed their National Assessment Centre in Bridgwater on numerous occasions I could relate to them. I subsequently wrote to them asking for details about the type of work they do and received back a very enthusiastic and helpful response from Jess Winchester who heads up their fundraising team. The following day, my daughter and myself visited the National Assessment Centre and after spending a couple of hours there speaking to therapists, support staff and a family whose son was there receiving therapy, we assured ourselves that BIBIC does provide an invaluable service and need all the support they can get simply to survive. The idea of supporting a locally based, relatively small charity where £5k really will make a difference also appealed to me (and my daughter) but I think what really sold it to us was the drawing I've uploaded (see Gallery) by 12 year old Callum of him before and after he visited BIBIC, I think it says it all…!.

  

That’s my story, please please please help me reach my £5000 target as it will make a difference to a child’s life. I will post regular updates/blogs here so please come back again and follow my progress, I will be getting in the sea in March which I know will make for an interesting and hopefully amusing blog…!