My solo Channel swim was completed on Monday august 12th in 15 hours & 2 minutes. I swam 45 km in the Channel which was 18 Degrees C., took over 50,000 strokes & burned approx 15,000 calories. I set out from Samphire Hoe at 07.30 & landed on the beach at Wissent at 22.30 (UK time), supported by an excellent coach, Nils Young of Red Top Swimming; a wonderful friend, Mike Nash; & of course Peter Reed, the pilot of Rowena & his crew.

It was a crazy, ridiculous, endurance adventure & it took longer & was more more arduous than I had expected. I hated parts of it but overall it was a brilliant, unforgettable, epic, one off adventure.

Here is the background.....

In a moment of madness, after a 2.2 km swimming race in Cape Town on April 1st 2018 (Yes it really was on April's Fool Day!) I realised that I hadn't been cold even though the water temperature was 10.5 C, I decided to attempt to swim the English Channel.

Swimming from England to France had always been an ambition of mine, in common with many swimmers. But a fear of hypothermia & a dislike of swimming in cold water without a wet suit had always put me off, until that swim in Cape Town. What I failed to compute at the time was the rather important fact that the CT swim was 1.8 km & took about 32 minutes, whereas the Channel swim from Folkestone  to Cap Gris Nez in France is 36-44 km depending upon the tides and conditions and will take me about 15 hours!

Your sponsorship will enhance my determination to complete the Channel swim & it will also help so many children at Treloar's, which is the UK's leading residential school enabling education for disabled young people. 

 I have been a supporter of Treloar's for over 10 years. It is such a wonderful charity, helping so many disabled children to receive a fantastic education that would otherwise not be possible.
www.treloar.org.uk.