Dear Friends,

As last year I have been taking part in the "Channel Swim" organised by Aspire. In their own words:

Aspire is a national charity, which provides practical help to people who have a spinal cord injury. Did you know that every eight hours someone in the UK is paralysed by a spinal cord injury? Disability is expensive; lightweight wheelchairs can cost up to £4,000 – that’s a lot of money! Aspire helps buy lightweight wheelchairs so that people can live more independent lives. We also visit newly injured patients to offer support and advice, over a cup of tea, and point people to services such as Aspire Housing. Think about your home; could you go back to it if you were suddenly paralysed? I certainly couldn’t. Aspire provides temporary accessible housing whilst adaptions are being made or a new house is being organised, which is one less thing to worry about. So when you’re pounding out those lengths, you can be certain that your hard work is making a real difference!

David faced living in a nursing home at age of 35. David was paralysed by a spinal cord injury on his way to work. Before he had his accident, he was living in a flat on the 3rd floor. After ruling out the possiblity of moving home and adapting his flat, he approached his local council, but nothing suitable was available. With his discharge date looming, David was struggling to find somewhere; having been in hospital for six months, he did not want to stay there any longer than was needed. But with nothing else available the only remaining option was a nursing home for the elderly. Fortunately, the fully accessible Aspire house in Wakefield became available and David was offered it as a temporary measure until he could find a place of his own. 'The Aspire house gave me the opportunity to regroup after coming out of hospital and to get used to life as a wheelchair user.'

You can read much more about Aspire's activities on their website: http://www.aspire.org.uk/

This year I managed 2124 lengths of Brighton's 25-metre Prince Regent pool in the allotted time - 12 weeks from 12th September, which makes a total of 33 miles. I reached "the other side" on 7th November, so in theory, I was over over half-way back by the end (see my attached swimming log). Last year I raised £109 but fell short of my target of £500, which would be enough to buy SmartNav technology for PC to enable two people with high level spinal injury to use a computer without the use of their hands.  

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.

So please dig deep and donate now.