In April 2016, my mother was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a life-limiting condition with rather depressing survival rate statistics.

She receives treatment on a 4 week cycle at the Ruth Myles Day Unit at St George's Hospital in Tooting, which is a unit that specialises in the treatment of a range of blood disorders, including, but not limited to, the many editions of leukaemia.

When she was first diagnosed, I took some time out of work to drive her around and keep her company on her many, many medical appointments, so I am very familiar with the Day Unit, and its good-natured, caring and all-round-excellent staff, and also what it is like to sit in their waiting room or on the ward for hours at a time.

My mother has been very lucky to receive amazing care, and she is fortunately beating the odds by still being in remission at the two year mark. She is determined to make it to her 80th birthday in December 2019.

To celebrate our good fortune, I am embarking on a Summer of Swimming fundraising programme to support improvements to the Ruth Myles Day Unit.

I will be taking up a number of open water swimming challenges, starting with the Great North Swim, a 1 mile swim in Lake Windermere on 9th June, and finishing with the ChillSwim 5.25 mile swim across the length of Coniston Water on September 1st.

To put this into context, I haven't done any sustained swimming since 2012, and only did my first training (pool) swim last Thursday (10th May). I've also never done a real open water swim before, so transforming myself from a lazy limpet to a dashing dolphin will be a proper challenge, worthy of your sponsorship.

So, to borrow from that famous Irish electioneering slogan, donate early, donate often!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

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.