The Cause - Brent Friends of the Earth (www.brentfoe.com)

Friends of the Earth is a worldwide organisation with national groups in many countries and many local groups. The UK group can be found at www.foe.co.uk.

We campaign on environmental issues because what affects the environment affects us. So we campaign against the loss of bees as they pollinate our food; we campaign to do all possible to reduce climate change because of the catastrophic effects predicted by most climate scientists from global warming; we campaign for better air quality because of the health dangers associated with current high levels of pollution; we campaign for dangerous chemicals to be removed from products because of the harm to workers and local people who live near the manufacturing areas; we campaign against proposals to begin "fracking" because of the multiple dangers of this technology - the risk to the water table, the possibility of triggering earthquakes and the senselessness of adding another fossil fuel to our energy supply. We also campaign for positive things, such as better transport links, preserving beautiful parts of the landscape and getting solar panels on schools and public buildings.

The Event

Swim Serpentine is a one-day open water swimming festival staged in the heart of London. Organised by London Marathon Events, the festival is held in and around the beautiful Serpentine in Hyde Park, the venue for the open water swimming competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

www.swimserpentine.co.uk

The Distance

One-Mile Swim: A classic distance in the world of open water swimming events. Swim Serpentine takes place on the same course as the London 2012 Marathon Swimming Olympic event, with one full lap around the Serpentine making up the one-mile swim. This is the most popular of all the swim distances for Swim Serpentine with swimmers taking anything from 20 minutes through to one hour to complete the swim.