So 30 plus years ago aged 9 (as per the photo) I did my first sponsored swim at The Walnuts swimming pool in Orpington. The incentive getting to have my picture taken with the then Olympic legend (and my first crush) David Wilkie! I managed 28 lengths of the 33.3m big pool (.3 is important!). I was never a fast swimmer and I felt rather chuffed the one time I came 5th out of 6th in a swimming gala doing butterfly instead of coming last! Roll on to 2019, the crush on David Wilkie has thankfully gone (he was old enough to be my Dad 🤣) along with  my ability to swim butterfly but my love for swimming, albeit still fairly slowly, returned. Since 2017, I’ve found my passion for swimming again and especially outdoors. As such on Sunday 15th September, I’m doing something I never thought I would attempt and that’s to try and swim 10km in the River Dart with an expected water temperature of around 15/16 degrees!  A 10km swim is apparently the marathon equivalent for a swim and to say I’m terrified is an understatement although I’m slightly excited too. 

I’’m doing this for Games Aid as I became a Trustee for them earlier this year and whilst I give my time voluntarily (along with all the other Trustees from the Video Games industry) and help out at events we run, I felt I wanted to do something personally. Games Aid raises money on a yearly basis for a number of smaller charities and we have just given out £20,000 each to the following charities for this year which support vulnerable or disabled children and adults: Access Sport, Autistica, Clock Tower Sanctuary, Everyone Can, Lifelites, Maps, Solving Kids Cancer & Special Effect. 

More information on Games Aid and these charities can be found here:

Www.gamesaid.org

Any small amount you are able to donate will help Games Aid to support these charities in the future. 

Thank you 

Anna x

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