How did it start, this rather ambitious desire to swim the English channel?  Well, some years ago lying in a hospital bed after yet more surgery I finally accepted that my running days were behind me and that I would never ‘properly’ run again and therefore a new challenge, something to replace those crazy ultra-distant running events had to be dreamt up……..that was when the idea of the channel first entered my head. I had already done some open-water swimming and had recently joined the Serpentine Swimming Club in London which has a prestigious long-distance swimming history.  Before I knew it a channel slot was booked. Build-up swims have included a round the Isle of Wight relay, channel relay and lake Zurich relay, now is the time to go out there on my own without anyone to take over once I get tired! 

 

Attempting to swim the channel is by no means an easy challenge.  It is 21miles of unpredictable cold water, jelly fish, tides, flotsam and the busiest shipping lanes in the world which all probably what make the swim the ‘marathon swim challenge’.  

 

Many know that a number of years ago I was unfortunately knocked off my motorbike (coincidentally on-route to a swimming pool) in a hit-and-run collision. I was very poorly and seriously injured spending weeks in intensive care and months recovering in hospital.  I have been left with some life-long changes but they are, in the grand scheme of things, quite acceptable.  34 operations later (that’s taking account of the odd intervening scrape too) I want to, well draw a kind of ‘line in the sand’, hence why the channel swim comes into the equation.  This is a very personal challenge and the toughest physical event, other than fighting for my life which I remember vividly, I have ever taken on.  I mention it because I hope it adds context to what I am doing and why. 

 

Why is the channel so tough? Well, it’s cold and despite the recent good weather the sea is still taking a while to warm up and is probably 50% colder than an average swimming pool – currently around 14 ˚c. 

The English channel has been conquered less time than Everest, many try and unfortunately don’t get across, many do too.  Getting dragged out of the water as I’m at risk of hypothermia is probably still my greatest fear.  I’ve trained for well over a year (bar a short break for a smallish operation) and must have clocked-up over 1,200 km in the water and since the beginning of May I have religiously, every weekend, been swimming up and down Dover harbour following exactly what Freda (she is the most amazing woman who trains us all) and the rest of the beach crew say.  At the beginning Dover training was brutal (that’s someone who swims outside all year saying it was brutal!), we started swimming in water that was below 10 degrees, getting out for an hour and a half, by which time you’ve just started to warm-up again and stopped shivering, only to be told to strip back down to your trunks and get back in the water! I’ve also battled with the ‘bulking-up’ piece of the preparation and not really been able to put on any significant weight – a pre requisite for such challenging endurance events. 

There have been many who have supported me along the way, not least my wife who has now taken to monitoring the sea temperature at Sandettie light buoy (mid-channel) more than me! My son has been there too as have family and close friends, some of whom will be with me on the day helping me through the dark patches on the swim and  hopefully sharing the celebrations when I run out of water and become a Channel swimmer. 

 

The charity: Multiple Sclerosis Society

Whilst I have completed many, many charity events over the years I never set out for this to be charity-focussed, it is as I said a very personal challenge. However, I have always been struck from afar how MS can take a grip of people regardless of age or gender.  It was this reason I have run (with others) from Arch to Arc and done other charity events to raise money for the MS society.  Recently a friend and colleague who is the same age as me was diagnosed with MS.  We swapped notes on the effectiveness – or sometimes ineffectiveness  - of neuropathic pain drugs and I witnessed her coping with the initial diagnosis, hospitalisation, regaining mobility in a wheelchair, walking sticks to now walking, over a year later, independently. 

It is for people like Esther I ask for your support, please give what you can and I’ll do my bit by placing one hand in front of the other, no matter how tired, exhausted , sick, angry, fed-up and generally cheesed-off I’ll be feeling during the swim, that is one had in front of the other for what will probably be around 18hrs until I run out of water! 

It may not cross many minds, but please be reassured that every single penny donated goes to MS Society.  So, please dig deep and together hopefully we’ll help the lives of MS sufferers. 

Thank-you,

JB

 

 

 P.S. answers to channel misconceptions –

Q. “You wear a wetsuit, don’t you”? A. No, channel rules don’t allow it, they weren’t invented what Captain Webb first swam the channel!

Q. “it’s about 9 miles……isn’t it”? A. “I wish”!

 

Q. “You cover yourself in grease don’t you”? A. “no, you don’t bother, only to stop the chaffing”!