UPDATE - we did it!! We made it across in 15h23m and have raised over £30k as a team for Aspire. See gallery above for pics!

The Swim: yes, you read correctly! I am swimming across the English Channel to France on Sat 8 August 2020 in a relay team of six swimmers. The English Channel is 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, but we will be battling the tides, current and shipping lanes, so will be swimming much, much further than that (potentially up to 30 miles). The rules of channel swimming are strict, we must have one swimmer in the water at all times, with no assistance available other than the pilot boat, and we will be swimming day and night. No wetsuits are allowed, which means we will be swimming in cold water around 15C (59F) in just our swimmers and making friends with the jellyfish! We’re aiming to complete the crossing in around 14+ hours, which will mean multiple swim legs per person until we reach France.

The Team: my fellow team mates are all parents from my two daughters school in Kent. I’m on a strict training plan which means lots of early 5am starts before work to get in the hundreds of training hours needed. I’ve also been taking regular dips in the sea since December 2019 to help my body acclimatise to the cold.

Why: we are planning to raise over £12k as a team for Aspire. Every four hours someone is paralysed by Spinal Cord Injury and Aspire provides the essential equipment, advice and housing, plus assistive technologies to allow people with spinal cord injuries to live their lives independently. This is a big challenge, but the more we can raise, the more of a difference it will make. Please be as generous as you can with your sponsorship no matter how big or small.

Progress: please see the various updates and photos on my training below. You can also check out this video to see what swimming the Channel will be like https://youtu.be/u5Crn7hBd_w