In a nutshell: 

Starting from around February/March 2017, I'm going to swim the Thames from source to somewhere near London.. and when I get there, I'll think about whether I'll continue on until it all gets a bit too tidal. How many miles? The Thames is 215 miles (184 to the Greenwich Thames barrier). I'll be swimming it in chunks over the year, raising money for Sue Ryder.

The longer explanation (because concise is not my middle name):

You may already know the final part of the story. Dad spent his last days in the Sue Ryder Hospice at Leckhampton before his cancer, that nasty, relentless disease, took him away. We were so grateful for the support and the space that the staff and the hospice in general gave us to spend time with Dad. Hospices like this rely on charitable donations to run. I want others to be able to benefit as we did.

You may not know the first part of the story.  It's too long and too rich in detail to write here. I'll try and give you a brief synopsis. Dad was a swimmer... Both natural and practiced. He did triathlons from his 40s onwards and I remember the excitement of his first (and last) tri wetsuit, him practicing his strokes across the kitchen, working on turns in the local pool. I fondly remember our family summer holidays on a boat on the Thames between Lechlade and Oxford, jumping off the side, Dad comedically losing his trunks and duck diving to fetch them (one of us snapped that right at the critical moment, bottom up) and the endless competition over the days fishing tally.. All dutifully recorded in the 'ships log' by first mate Mum.

Dad grew up in Cumnor, and no doubt swam and fished the nearby Thames. Mum and Dad spent their 'courting' days around there and their fondness of the area remained in later years. Growing up, I spent my summers in the local river, the Churn, the first tributary to the Thames, catching bullheads by hand and 'swimming' from the tiny weir splitting the Churn into two which ran side by side, separated by the fantastically named road 'Bow Wow'. 

As a bookbinder in later years, Dad ran projects for fellow bookbinders to work on their artist design binding - one of these being rebinding copies of Sweet Thames Run Softly.

Mum and Dad's home of nearly 30 years stood very near the source of the Thames and it's there I'll start, paddling and wading in the young winterbourne stream. 

So, my Thames memories are many and fond. It feels a fitting challenge to improve on my swimming whilst journeying this river, which has flowed throughout my life. I want to invite family and friends to share in this, through updates, through video footage, through walking alongside on the Thames path, or taking a dip with me. I want to get off my arse and turn the awful into something positive for me and for my family. I think Dad would have loved this and I feel that this challenge will then be part of his legacy. I also think he'd tell me I was mad. And then grab his trunks.