In 2017, I had to have major surgery on my right ankle resulting in it being fused and fixed in position. This put an end to my running, so I turned my attention back to swimming which I grew up loving. In 2018, I swam from West Mersea to Maldon, which is about 12 miles and the furthest I have ever swum to raise money for the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital who looked after me during the ankle surgery and the RNLI. The surgery means that my foot is unable to kick and it actually slows me down due to its position in the water, so my propulsion comes purely from my shoulders.

Despite the fused ankle and the challenges that brings with walking, I love open water swimming, so I have now focused upon my next challenge and decided to attempt to swim from England to France in August 2025. For me, having challenges and goals in life is important as it provides opportunities to test and stretch your own physical and mental boundaries. The training in the local rivers throughout the winter and the number of miles to be swum in training will test both of these. Oh and then there's the jellyfish to think about!

Swimming the channel at it's shortest point is 21 miles, although I am likely to swim further due to tides and weather. This is one of the hardest challenges there is, with less than 2000 people that have successfully completed it. More people have reached the summit of Mount Everest!

I have chosen Farleigh Hospice as my charity to fundraise for as it has, and will continue to help so many people close to me. The stats now indicate that one in two of us will get Cancer at some point in our life. In recent years, it has been responsible for taking family and friends far too early. But Farleigh has helped them and their families.

Farleigh Hospice is a registered charity (no. 284670) which provides hospice care to people affected by life-limiting illnesses across mid Essex.

They help patients to live as actively as possible from the point of diagnosis to the end of their life, by providing physical and emotional care, free of charge.

With approximately 40% of their yearly running costs being funded by the local NHS, they rely on the support and goodwill of the local mid Essex community to contribute to the £21,271 it costs to provide their services each day.

This swim is a non-wetsuit swim and I am looking at over 13 hours of swimming with all that live in the English Channel. Whilst donations will support Farleigh Hospice, a portion of the money donated will also contribute towards the cost of the challenge.