I've always swum ............but then I moved to Guernsey.......... and met a group of mad but inspirational people who believed that I could do what I always thought for me would be impossible.

 

Over the last 18 months I have swum more and more and been introduced to the evil drink ! During one drunken evening in December 2012 I was fed the idea that it was possible for me to swim the 21.1 nautical miles from England to France. It took until my 50th birthday to realise .......that maybe.........just maybe....... they were right !

 

So in March 2012 I bit the bullet and paid the deposit for my pilot and booked my swim. Then didn’t tell anyone in case I changed my mind ............. 

 

There are days when I believe I can do this and days when I think what the hell do I think I’m doing !!  ..........but I’ve dreamed of this for 15 years and never thought I’d live the dream ......

 

So to reality......in March last year I was neither fit enough or strong enough .....so over the last 12 months the training regime has been a tad tough .........5 pool sessions a week and 3 sea sessions minimum........now Spring 2013 is when the real hard work begins with long sea sessions in less than inviting 10 degree water. 

 

The greatest inspiration for my swim is a man named Roger :-) at 70 years young he swam the channel in 2012 to become the oldest person to do this........and HE believes I can do it !! 

 

In completing his Channel swim, Roger raised in excess of £500,000 for "Hope for Guernsey", the local fundraising branch of Wessex Medical Research, a charitable trust based in Southampton which raises money to support vital medical research into a range of diseases, including cancer. 

 

Everyone knows of at least one person who has suffered from, or has lost their life to cancer.  Roger Allsopp's fantastic fundraising achievement enabled Wessex Medical Research to purchase a state of the art mass spectrometer for their cancer research team in Southampton.  This piece of equipment is allowing the team to discover new things about cancer at a much faster pace than they would have been able to prior to its purchase.  At present they are working on protein markers in blood samples for breast, prostate and ovarian cancer, which is ground-breaking and would benefit ALL of us. My goal is to raise funds through my Channel swim to keep that piece of equipment running so that the research team can play its part in fighting this vicious and indiscriminate disease. 

 

In the same way that the money raised by Roger was ring-fenced by Wessex Medical Research to purchase the mass spectrometer, the funds I hope to raise will also be ring-fenced for the running costs of the mass spectrometer project.

 

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