Given that this photo sums up my swimming until January 2022 (and that was taken in Malaysia!)...How did I go from "I'll give myself a small challenge to swim 22 miles over 3 months for DiabetesUK" LINK: 
Support Audrey Tang in the Diabetes UK Swim22 2022  
to "Yes I'll do a 10k swim open water"?!

Rewind to 2017 when I met a guy at a conference who spoke on designing wellbeing in architecture, and was into wild swimming and had done the Dart10k LOADS (at his point, I didn't even know what RUNNING was, let alone any other sport!)...Fast forward to 2019 and we'd gone from colleagues to friends, so getting this message "I had a bleed on the brain and I'm in hospital...I'm comfortable and feeling pleased to be alive tbh...", was pretty f'ing shocking. It was an AVM, he'd had it since birth.

Surviving it was the first thing, recovering as he has, as we jump to 2022 is incredible, for which credit goes to his awesome family, and the many health benefits of his swimming. 

This is his comeback...and my debut (read: first open water endurance swim/holy-crap-that's-a-long-way!)...but thankfully he's going at my pace as far as possible...so...here I am!

I have pledged £200 to take part, my - now departed & still pretty sure I can't swim - mum made that happen :) ...so please, if you can, help me match it in sponsorship, and if you're around the Totnes side of the River Dart on Saturday 3rd Sept, do come and give us a wave (the dry kind)!! Having done the London Marathon last year, Dave will be on the shoreline with the Brandy-dog...and it'll be his turn again next year!

About Level Water

The first splash. The holding your breath. The echoes of laughter. The wet hair. The lifted spirits. The joy of gliding through water. The smile that lasts all day.Swimming is like nothing else. The skills you develop, the confidence you build and the joys you feel are all universal. Yet access to swimming in the UK is not. At Level Water, we use the power of swimming to improve lives for children with disabilities.Everyone should have the opportunity to learn to swim and fall in love with the water.