My lovely nephew, Finlay, was born on 6 October last year.  He was (unexpectedly) born with Down's Syndrome.

Downright Excellent is an amazing charity at Old Street in London, which provides educational therapies and quality play experiences for children with Down's Syndrome and their siblings, plus education and support for parents and carers.  Finlay goes most Friday mornings, and is in a class with a number of other babies under the age of one (take a look at the photos to see what it's like).  I have been with him quite a few times.  There are speech and language therapists and occupational therapists who help us with Down's specific issues, Makaton signing, and strategies to enable Fin to grow, develop and have fun.  It has also been a great place in particular for Simon (my brother) and Hannah (my sister in law) to meet other parents with children who have Down's syndrome, and to share stories and support.  The website is here: http://downrightexcellent.wordpress.com/ 

I was (somehow) tricked into signing up to swim Hellespont, which is 5 km in Turkey on 30th August: http://www.swimhellespont.com/ .  This is despite the fact that: (a) I have never done anything like this before; and (b) I am not a very good swimmer!  I have been having lessons, and practising, but I can't promise that I will be able to manage the whole 5k!  Even if I don't, I can't think of a better motivation for trying than knowing I will be raising money for Downright Excellent.

UPDATE 4 SEPTEMBER 2012:

I am very pleased to tell you that I did not drown!

The weather conditions were the worst that they have been for 20 years (since they first started doing this event), with wind gusting at 25 mph and massive waves.  Following the briefing the night before (at which we were told that, just because the Turkish rotary club were going ahead with the event, did not mean that it was safe, and that we should seriously consider not doing the swim), and a ferry trip over to the start during which we were buffeted by said 25 mph winds and saw the size of the waves, I gave serious consideration to not even getting in the sea, along with a number of other people who did not start at all given the conditions.  But the thought of all of your generosity, and Finlay, genuinely played an important part in getting me into the water.  

As you can see here http://www.canakkalerotaryclub.org/FileUpload/bs160583/File/repabsgender.pdf: I finished it in 1 hour 35 minutes, and came 135th out of 266 male finishers (there were more than 500 starters – or at least people who were supposed to start, and a lot of people were pulled out).  

I cannot thank you all enough for being so generous – the new photo is a thank you from Finlay (he is wearing the medal that they gave to me).