I am raising money to donate to Ashgate Hospice because they have provided support and equipment to help make the last few weeks of my dear friend Fiona Bingham life more comfortable for both her and for her family. They also provided this support and equipment for a number of months for my Aunty Julie who sadly passed away a week or so before Fi.

Fiona was one of my closest friends, meeting her at University in Huddersfield and then spending a lot of time after university seeing the sights of Clapham Junction after a few beverages and working with 16+ young people to share our love of the hospitality industry.

Fiona's death has been shocking and so hard to deal with for me but I can't imagine how hard it has been for Mark, John, Dodi, Al and Maria.

So many people have done so many challenges in the last year that I though it was my turn and as my Nan passed a couple of weeks ago I thought I would take the opportunity to use some of the money raised to donate something memorable to the home that has cared for her for the last 7 years.

I used to love swimming but in recent years have not kept it up. I have decided to challenge myself not only to swim the distance to France (in a pool) and back again. This works out to be 44 miles, which is 2,816 lengths of my local swimming pool. I plan to complete this challenge in 11 weeks which works out as 36.5 lengths a day.

I wanted to really challenge myself to honour the memories of all those I have lost and the good work that both Ashgate Hospice and Langwith Lodge do for many people but in particular thank them for looking after my friend and family members.

Please donate to support me but also to support these organisations that do so much for so many.