It's always good to challenge yourself and this year I am taking up something I've never done before - outdoor swimming. This is a real challenge for me as I've always walked and run but have never done more than a few lengths in a nice warm clean indoor pool. My goal is to build up to londer outdoor swims perhaps in the sea, but this event is a one mile swim in a reservoir. The Great East Swim is an organised event that included 1500 people last year.

I'm doing it for a cause that is close to my heart for an organisation called the Optimum Population Trust. This charity carry out research into population growth and support family planning projects in the developing and developed worlds. The worl population has doubled in the last 50 years to almost 7 billion! Without first tackling this issue, all other efforts on climate change, resource use and health are futile. Please give a few quid if you can to make me swim just that little bit harder!

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