My name is Dr Daisy Best. I live in North Yorkshire and I am a Counselling Psychologist. I have a private psychology practice in which I work with people who have experienced trauma. I appreciate that free, service provision to support people with their mental health is very limited and I recognise and value the excellent work that Teesside Mind do. www.teessidemind.org.uk

I have paddleboarded regularly since I bought my first paddleboard in 2021 and I absolutely love paddleboarding canals. I have a chapter in Jo Moseley’s third book; Adventures on the Water; the Power of Paddleboarding to Change Lives (Moseley, 2025) which is about paddleboarding on canals. I go paddleboarding as often as I can, usually at my local club, Scaling Watersports Club but otherwise, you can find me on canals.

I am aiming to paddleboard every navigable canal in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (North and South).

I paddleboarded from Liverpool to Goole (Coast to Coast of England) in 2023. The route consists of 162 miles along the Leeds Liverpool Canal and The Aire and Calder Navigation and I completed it over two weeks. Although I was undertaking the challenge on my own, many other paddleboarders who I connected with via Social Media joined me along the way, which was amazing.

After two weeks, I fell in love with canal paddling and decided I would set myself a challenge (I like to do that) and when I realised that nobody else has paddleboarded every canal in the UK and Ireland, I decided this would become my challenge. I also thought it would be a great way to raise mental health awareness including the mental health benefits of ‘blue spaces’. I have raised a total of £7882.00 for Mind, however, I decided to set up this permanent Just Giving page so that Teesside Mind can benefit from every canal paddle that I undertake.

I often paddleboard with others who have also helped to raise money, including Deb, Moz and Di. Therefore, you may have been signposted to this site by one of them or someone else who knows me.

Every penny makes a difference to people who are finding ways to cope with their mental health so I would like to thank you in advance.

If you want to know more about my adventures, please have a look at https://canalpaddler.co.uk/