On March 11th this year I am participating as part of a team in the Sydney Skinny Swim http://www.thesydneyskinny.com.au/about/sydney-skinny-ocean-swim-event.htm

- the ‘Skinny’ bit referring to the unclothed nature of participants rather than a radical change to my outline which remains frighteningly robust in nature - it is in fact a nude ocean swim.  The nudity bit is not concerning me that much, in that I am much more worried about the fact that being a typical Brit, my preferred, and indeed only stroke, is breaststoke, with my head held high in a manner that generally ensures that I emerge from the water with my hairstyle intact and as immaculate as ever.  I am therefore more concerned about the chances of me a) drowning or b) finishing a good hour after the rest of the swimmers rather than the fact that I am going to be minus my togs when completing it.  

The event is raising money for Brain Cancer research and I am also swimming/stripping in order to raise funds for Chris O’Brien Lifehouse through this Just Giving page.  Lifehouse has been the Ling family home from home during the course of my daughter Harriet’s treatment and is an integrated and focused centre of excellence, offering everything a cancer patient needs in one place, including advanced onco-surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, clinical trials, research, education, complementary therapies and psychosocial support.  As we as a family know, they support not only the patient, but the entire family in a holistic and caring way that makes living through the stress of diagnosis and treatment much more bearable.

So far my practice sessions have not been uniformly successful with one ocean swim resulting in my swimming into an armada of bluebottles and getting robustly and comprehensively stung - fortunately I was in my swimsuit for this outing limiting the extent of the stings to just my arms, the mind boggles, and eyes water, to think what the experience might have been like, had I been nude. Following this pretty painful experience that also included a couple of days itching like a particularly deranged Mexican bandit, I have focused on practising the nude side of the event and restricted my dummy run activities to floating in the bath. However come March 11th, I will be giving the event a good go and crossing my fingers for no bluebottles and a finish before the next wave of competitors start.

Thank you so much for your support.