Most of you who know me know that Nigel and I are lucky enough to have 2 beautiful, insane, adorable little girls who are absolutely exhausting but who we love to bits.  But not all of you know how long it took or what we ended up going through to have them.  It took us 6 years, several failed cycles of IVF and eventually treatment using donor eggs and sperm over in Spain before we finally became the family that we had dreamed of all those years.  Anyone who has never experienced infertility may not realise how hard it is, but those of you who have been there or who have friends who have been there will know, it’s simply awful.  The heartache, the grief and the constant failure and uncertainty is the hardest thing that either of us has ever been through, and I really don’t know that we would have made it through without the support of a wonderful charity called Infertility Network UK.  They provide advice, support, understanding and friendship to anyone affected by infertility, and through them we got the strength to keep chasing our dream, and ended up with our beautiful Hannah and Mia. 

Now we are lucky and have our family we try to put something back so that Infertility Network UK can continue to provide that essential support to more people, so they can hopefully go on to have their own happy endings. 

This summer for some random reason I decided to start Open Water Swimming, and I'm absolutely loving it!  Swimming in a beautiful tranquil lake first thing in the morning is a pretty special way to start the day and really sets me up for the day ahead.  However, in the interests of raising money for this fabulous charity I’ve decided to push things a bit harder and have enrolled in 2 slightly more challenging events.  I’m starting with a one mile Thames River Swim in August, and then progressing to a more scary sea swim in Poole Harbour in September. 

To spur me on in my training for these events it would be fab to know that I was raising much needed funds for a charity who have played a very important part in our life, so if anyone feels able to sponsor me anything at all then I would be very very grateful.

For more information about Infertility Network UK and the great work they do please either speak to me or have a look at their website, and if anyone is crazy enough to join me with the swimming then give me a shout… J

Thank you!

Nic x

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