As a family, five years ago our lives turned upside down when an undiagnosed tumour in my spinal cord haemorrhaged during the birth of Ellie's little brother, Joey. We've since learnt that every two hours someone in the UK is paralysed by spinal cord injury (SCI).

In my case, adapting to life with an incomplete SCI has meant discovering resilience, and then re-discovering it whenever reserves fall low. 2024 has been one of those challenging periods, so what better way to turn the tide (pun intended!) than take on a challenge, with my 8 year old daughter, to raise vital funds for the SCI community.

Ellie and I will be swimming 22 miles - the same distance as the English Channel swim - over the next 12 weeks. That's 118 lengths of our 25m local pool, every week, between us.

We're fundraising for Aspire, a charity providing the essential equipment, advice and housing that spinal cord injured people need to live their lives independently.

Please cheer us on and give generously. Thank you!