On 18^th September I am swimming 2 miles round the Serpentine in memory of Doug, my ‘Charming Man’ who, suffering depression, took his own life at Beachy Head in August 2014. 

I am raising funds for Sussex Search and Rescue, a team I am very proud to be a member of and which I joined in 2018, the same time I started training for this event.  Whilst my loved ones know Doug died at the cliffs of Beachy Head, an aspect not so many are aware of, is that he was missing for 5 days.  The ‘not knowing’ is very hard to bear and in a moment when we could no longer refrain from going to look for him, we were stunned and profoundly grateful to find volunteers, complete strangers, there in the dark searching for him.

Sussex Search and Rescue, like the Beachy Head Chaplaincy Team, search for missing vulnerable people.  We train hard to a high professional standard and are always on call day and night.  We have a foot, water and bike team and also work hard to raise all the funds to support our operations.  We do what we can to find loved ones, like Doug, who go missing.

This has been a very different challenge to Ride London – 2 ½ years ago I could barely swim front crawl the length of a swimming pool (as a family we are cyclists, not swimmers!)…...  But having made it round Ride London in 2017 and the London Marathon in 2005, I realised – one big swim and I’m eligible for a super big ‘London Classics’ medal!  The swimming was hard to begin with but now I’m a definite convert to open water swimming – it’s fantastic, has introduced me to the camaraderie of the Mid Sussex Tri Club, and has been so good for my physical and mental health!

Thank you, thank you – SO MUCH – for reading my story, for any donations however small, but above all, for the last 7 years of endless loving support.

(the photo is of Doug having completed the London Marathon in 2002, which inspired me to complete my first London Classic in 2005)