Swimming has always played a huge part in my life. I swam for my local swim club Killerwhales as a child for many years and went on to lifeguard at several pools all through my educational years funding my way through university.

I qualified as a STA level 2 swimming teacher 10 years ago and have taught many children to swim, including my own two daughters. 

Swimming is close to my heart and I feel is a real gift. Being able to join a relay team to swim the channel has been an ambition of mine for many years. I feel now is the right time for me and to do it for such a good cause that will benefit so many children enabling them to learn the gift that is swimming is going to fuel my training and determination to succeed and reach France!

The English Channel swim is seen as the Mount Everest of all swims as more people have climbed Mount Everest than have swum the English Channel. Swimmers will take part in a relay team of 6 from Dover to France, with the swim taking 12 - 18 hours.Drowning is a silent epidemic that claims an estimated 360,000 lives every year, many of them children.Drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide. These are wasted lives and preventable deaths. SwimTayka's mission is to give disadvantaged communities around the world access to swimming teachers who can not only provide the life skills of swimming, but create a legacy for todays children, who will grow up to teach the next generation.