Hi everyone,

I’m taking the plunge into the River Neva in St. Petersburg, Russia on August 12 to swim 2.3 kilometres (1.4 miles) around the Peter and Paul Fortress to raise money for my friend and former colleague, Sergey Chernov, and his family, and would greatly appreciate your sponsorship!

Sergey is something of a legend in St. Petersburg journalistic and cultural circles, having worked for The St. Petersburg Times, an English-language newspaper there, for more than 20 years, writing about (good) music and politics, particularly the Russian protest movement and human rights.

Sergey suffered a severe stroke at his home in St. Petersburg at the end of 2016, at the age of just 56. Fortunately, his wife Tanya was at home at the time and rushed him to hospital. But unfortunately, with a stroke, the first hour is crucial, and despite having arrived by ambulance, Sergey then had to wait for several hours before receiving any treatment, before finally being admitted to intensive care.

As many of you probably know, treatment following a stroke is ongoing and wide-ranging, from physiotherapy to speech therapy. Sergey can walk with the aid of a stick, and his brilliant sense of humour is thankfully intact. But he has little movement in his right arm, and speaking is still very difficult for him, which seems particularly cruel given he spent his career as an outspoken journalist. His official diagnosis is severe motor aphasia (meaning he understands speech and written words perfectly, but his ability to speak and write himself is severely impaired) and palsy of his right arm and leg.

Decent rehabilitation facilities and treatment are not remotely feasible on a Russian state pension, even those given to people with recognised disabilities such as post-stroke patients. So I would really like to raise some money to help Sergey and his fabulous wife Tanya pay for the costs of rehabilitation courses either in Russia or Estonia, depending on how much I can raise.

To give a rough idea of how much rehabilitation costs, one day in a Petersburg clinic with a carer costs upwards of 7,000 rubles (£85/$112). Medication, tests and other things are charged on top of that, and the recommended period for a rehabilitation course is 5 weeks - hence my target figure. All donations will be extremely gratefully received!

If you are Russian and it’s simpler for you to make a bank transfer (JustGiving apparently doesn't accept ruble cards unfortunately), that is equally welcome! To find out how to do that, or if you have any other questions about my fundraising campaign, please don’t hesitate to ask - just write to me here.

Here's a link to The Swim, in case anyone's interested. And some more pics of Sergey so you can see what a wonderful guy you'd be helping.