Welcome to my fundraising page for Fáil Anála (Breathing Space / Take a breath).

Why sponsor me? My mum, Brid Littleton, died June 16th 2021. For her birthday in November, I am doing a North Sea swim challenge in my swimming costume (no wetsuit), to raise funds for The Wave Project here in Dunbar (a local charity). In the reflection that Brid chose to have read at her funeral it asked us to "bury our sorrows in doing good deeds", which is something that I reflect on every day.

What is the challenge? I decided in the summer to swim for a charity on Brid’s birthday. Swimming in the sea (almost every day) has helped me enormously. My swim buddy shared a poem with me by Hollie McNish called "as far as you can paddle". In it Hollie says “grief, it comes in waves”. The sea has provided me a place to breathe and helped me understand the waves of grief. For this event I am going to swim in the North Sea, in only my swimming costume and cap for 6 minutes each day for 6 consecutive days, with the final swim on Brid’s birthday, 6th November 2021. I will be doing this no matter the weather - hail, rain or snow - all can be expected given that this is Scotland, with predicted temperature in the North Sea for early November as less than 9 degrees (Photo of me after a swim in the Gallery).

Join in, if you are near: A few friends, some of whom have also lost a loved one, are joining me for the final swim on Saturday 6th November, meeting at Noon, at Whitesands Bay, Dunbar (Photo of Whitesands Bay in the Gallery). Many other friends will be on the beach that day to keep the fire burning so we can warm up after! If you are local and what I speak of here resonates with you then please do join us, if you can, either in the water (in whatever swim layers you would like) or on the beach itself. You are welcome too. 

Which charity? Deciding to swim for “a charity” was the easy part but knowing which charity to chose felt hard. It was finally in September that I realised which charity would suit the occasion best and suddenly the choice was easy. I found a charity that works in the water, works with children, helps others with grief, and is local to Dunbar. After meeting with Alison Young, the Scotland Coordinator, I just knew that this was the right charity to sponsor. The Wave Project Scotland (Reference: https://www.waveproject.co.uk/project-locations/scotland/) is a mental health charity for children offering surfing courses to help them overcome challenges in their lives. They welcome young people from ages 8-18 to Belhaven Beach in Dunbar for 6 weeks to spend time 1:1 with a surf mentor in the water (Photo of Wave Project Scotland is the cover photo on this page). It is a great charity where the volunteers come together to really impact the lives of the children, some of whom have suffered a bereavement, others that have suffered from cancer, some that are young carers, and all are children that deserve our support. The charity help over 100 children a year and was recently featured on the BBC news website (Reference: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58994935). 

Donations Raised: All the donations raised will go directly to The Wave Project Scotland. Depending on the amount raised they will be able to use the funds to sponsor a child through their 6-week course (£150 funds one child) and / or buy a new surfboard, which would have a 5 year shelf life (£250 per surfboard) and which can then be used by many children across the courses over the years. 
October 22nd Update: Not even 24 hours post launch we smashed both targets I had set (400, then 550). After advice from a trusted person I am going for a massively ambitious and very overwhelming amount - but I feel that my personal story is resonating with people and clearly many want to support this charity from all over the world. So today, October 22nd, 4.30pm, I am changing the target to £1000. 

Thank you. Please donate what you can. All pennies count. Thank you.