Thanks for reading this.

Swimming has helped me to regain strength after last year's embuggerance. Starting with just 6 lengths back in February, when my energy levels were still low, I built up slowly and now swim 40 lengths, three times a week. In a 25m pool, that means 3km/week. The challenge I am now setting myself is to swim my age (59) in lengths, which is very nearly 1.5km.

Close to León, Oxford's twin city in Nicaragua, there is an area where the ground water contains arsenic, due to the local geology. The World Health Organisation's "safe" level for arsenic is 10 parts per billion (ppb). I witnessed a water engineer test some well water which was over 200ppb. One of the long term effects of drinking this contaminated water is cancer. You can read about this at www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/arsenic. People in this desperately poor country who get cancer are unlikely to receive the standard of treatment that I was given at the Churchill Hospital.

Nuevas Esperanzas has been working for some years to provide clean, arsenic-free water to the people in these communities, funded in part by the Oxford León Association & Trust. We tend to take for granted our access to clean water while in many parts of the world it is a constant struggle to fetch water. I hope to raise funds to help them continue these projects.  By sponsoring me in this challenge, you will help to keep families safe from a range of illnesses, and to make their life a wee bit less hard.

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. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.