In summer 2021, I will be swimming the English Channel to raise money for Aspire, a charity that helps people with spinal cord injuries live fully independent lives. There will be six swimmers on my team, and we'll be taking it in turns to cover the 22 miles from Dover to France, swimming one hour at a time through cold water, jellyfish, and the world's busiest shipping lane!

Why am I swimming? Well, like most people I spent much of 2020 feeling aimless and anxious. I wanted to do something to give back – and give myself a goal to work towards to boost my own confidence. At 3 a.m. one morning, as I lay in bed unable to sleep, a random thought popped into my head: could I swim the Channel as part of a relay team? I was a water polo player for many years. Surely it couldn't be that difficult to swim just part of the distance?

That's how I discovered Aspire. Every year, they draft swimmers to cross the Channel in teams and give back to their community of people affected by spinal cord injury. When I read about their life-changing work, I knew I had to get involved.

I contacted the organizer and discovered that the try-out date was less than two weeks away. At that point I hadn't been back in the pool in about ten years, so to say I was jumping in at the deep end would be an understatement. (Because yes, despite my initial optimism, the training is hard! Not least because it involves swimming in winter without a wetsuit.) But somehow, I made the team, and soon my sleepless nights fretting about the state of the world were overtaken by sleepless nights worrying about the deep sea, the cold, and the creatures I might encounter on my swim, as well as feeling incredibly excited for the challenge that lay ahead of me.

There is another, more personal reason why I want to raise money for Aspire. When I was thirteen, my mum was hit at speed by a driver while out running, and her and my family's lives were upended in an instant. While she thankfully didn't sustain a spinal cord injury, she was very badly hurt, and I gained some appreciation for how life can change in the blink of an eye. I learned what it's like to have a hospital bed moved into your house, and to watch a family member turn from a very active person to someone who is simply lucky to be alive. I know from this experience the importance of the practical and financial support Aspire offers. Every four hours, someone in the UK suffers a debilitating spinal cord injury, and their lives are changed forever. That's a lot of people who need our help to find the adequate housing and resources for their new way of living.

I hope you will join me in giving to this special cause. It would mean so much to me and to the people Aspire helps.

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.