Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving sponsorship page. 

 

I have, probably foolishly, been persuaded by some of my fellow swimmers at the Serpentine Swimming Club (including Jennie my wife) to be a member of a six-man RelayTeam aiming to swim the Channel.

We have a pilot booked and our slot is between September 14th and 22nd. We are the third in line so will hopefully go some time after September 16th, depending on tide and weather conditions. The one thing that is certain is that the water will not look like this picture!

To qualify we will have to swim an hour each in rotation untill we get there - probably three or four times each.

While I am the oldest, our average age is 57 so we feel we justify the title of "Serpentine Veterans"

Jennie has for many years been involved with Riding for the Disabled, which does a magnificent job providing opportunities for seriously disabled children to experience the thrill of riding a horse. For the last 20 years or so she has been part of the Royal Mews Group and so has asked me to try to raise money to support their work - paricularly important for children in London but also particularly expensive as there are no horses availlable locally for use at no charge, as there often are in rural areas.

£8,000 would pay for four ponies twice a week for a year - I hope you will feel able to help us reach this target.

Update on September 17th. The swimmer before us is hoping to go tomorrow so the earliest time for us will be Sunday. At the moment the waiting seems the worst part but I may revise that opinion later. Not to be allowed to go at all would be awful so fingers crossed.

September 18th. Stood down at 19.45, having been told to be ready to go at 05.00 on 19th, owing to forecast of strong winds

September 20th. Now expecting to go at 06.00 tomorrow. To follow our progress via GPS tracker go to

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0yeHQ0bluLFqyTf932J6W1nRCQHB5nCif

We made it. We left Dover at 06.52 and arrived at the beach by the Cap Gris Nez lighthouse at 22.04, rather faster than we expected. The weather was perfect but the tides meant that we followed a very circuitous route and swam a lot further than the 21 mile straight line. My two hours could not have been more different - the first in bright sunshine and the second in the dark with very chilly air.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you who have supported me - it was the thought of not letting you down that kept me going towards the end of my second slot.

 

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.