Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

I have been open water swimming quite a bit in the last few years. I have been dreaming of new goals to set myself and had considered swimming the channel or the Strait of Gibraltar. After swimming many beautiful spots around Cornwall and around the Scilly Isles a couple of times, it occurred to me that we have a beautiful challenge right here on our doorstep.

The Cornish coast path is measured at 476km. I won't have luxury of swimming it in a single tour with a support vessel, so plan to tackle it piece by piece over the next 2 summer seasons. I will swim 5-10km on each leg and choose the swims to suit sea conditions around our very varied coast. I have already completed 60km at the end of the 2016 season, so only 416 to go! I'll start again in May this year when the water warms just a little! Typically I take my trusty camper van to the end point on the swim, then ride my bike to the start, get changed, then swim back to the van, then collect my bike. Phew. It's a great way to see Cornwall up close and personal though!

I will enlist support from local kayakers, friends with boats for the exposed stretches (most of the route!) and plan to use some professional support to get around Land's End and the Lizard. I'll encourage local swimmers to join me when they can. I'll get a facebook group going to shout out what plans I have coming up, in case you fancy joining me!? I'll also update on progress of course.

Last year we lost our dear Peter Saville (my wife Gill's dad) to cancer. This very brave man was superbly cared for at Mount Egdcumbe Hospice in St. Austell. Amazing, amazing care which is funded only by charitable donations. I hope we never need them again, but our community certainly will. I really think raising funds for them is worth our thoughts and efforts; I hope you agree and can chip in.

Many thanks to all,

Mark

Any questions, please do contact me at killiow@me.com.