I have taken on a much bigger challenge this year and I'm swimming the English Channel as part of a 3 person relay with two great swimmers and friends at the Club, Mandy and Pip. Our window was between 30 June and 8 July but it was called off due to bad weather. We are now waiting for a slot to be available to get our chance to swim to France.

I am totally excited and absolutely terrified but determined to enjoy the journey and the challenge.

As part of my training for the Channel, I took part in the four SLSC aquathlons in June.  I swum the Thames 14km marathon in August which was utterly exhausting and brilliant, and returned to the Isles of Scilly.

I will be attempting the Scilly Swim Challenge (15km swim, 10km walk) again in September. All of this, I might add, in rather cold water without a wetsuit. Throw in the Seahorse Swim (3.8km) and the Brownsea Island swim (~6km I think??) and I've had a busy few months.

Life is not quite what I had imagined turning 40 in January 2017 and seemingly now being the crazy cat swimming running baking lady. I did not think I would be THAT person doing all those crazy things. In the last year alone, so many things have changed for the better. I am a stone lighter than May 2016 when I started the Mile A Day in May, and over 1.5 stone since end January 2017. I have another 1.5 stone to go and I will be back at a healthy, manageable weight. Thanks to all my efforts towards weight loss and training, my endometriosis is more manageable and although the 10 years of lack of diagnosis has done irreversible damage, I hope that I will be able to control the pain more and more as this year progresses, my weight diminishes and my fitness increases.

I started running again and have finished the Couch to 5km programme which was a huge help when I did my first aquathlon of the season! Thanks to all the training, my swimming is faster and stronger. But swimming the Channel, the 14km Thames Marathon or the Isle of Scillies will still be three very big challenges for me. And so I have chosen to fundraise for these three events.

Yet again, I have chosen to support three charities this year, Endometriosis UK and The Passage, which I have been supporting for over 12 years as well as Frank Water Projects which is a more recent charity of mine.

Why The Passage?
I used to volunteer for The Passage in their kitchen and then fundraising at Victoria Station. I have witnessed their excellent work first hand but my work and life has got in the way of volunteering, so I now donate money and attend their concerts. The Passage runs London's largest voluntary sector day centre for homeless and vulnerable people: each day they help more than 200 men and women.

I support The Passage because I cannot imagine life without a home and life living on the streets. I could not live on the streets, we cannot begin to imagine how tough life is on the streets and nobody should have to.

I love the work The Passage does and have done for years. Help me support to them supporting individuals, like you and me, who do not have the luxury of a Home.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.