Thanks for taking the time to visit my Just Giving page.

As many friends and family members will know, after my retirement as Chief Executive of Brain Tumour UK, and the charity's merge which followed to create the new Brain Tumour Charity, I set myself the new and different challenge of swimming a mile across Lake Winderemere on 16 June in a wetsuit.

For personal and professional reasons the Brain Tumour Charity is a cause close to my heart and as well as raising much needed funds to support anyone affected by a brain tumour I decided to do  my swim in memory of our much missed elder son, Stephen, who was diagnosed with his fatal brain tumour 10 years ago, aged only 22.    

Well....I did it!

Please visit my photos on this site which confirm I completed the swim despite the unseasonally low water temperature of 15 degrees;  with some trepidation I learned on arrival at Windermere that the late arrival of spring/summer meant that even in June, snow melt was still running off the fells into the lake!.

This is the UK's largest outdoor swimming event. A record  10,000 people swam a mile over three days 14-16 June.  My 'wave' of 250 swimmers lined up at the start in pink caps at 10.30 am on Sunday 16th after a pre-start dip to get used to the water temperature. There followed on- site interviews with leading UK Olympian swimmers to pschyc us up  and a ten minute warm- up led by a professional trainer!

As we assembled for the starter gun, other participants soundly advised to hang back to clear the way for the scary power swimmers who completed their 'miles' in half our time!   This was a personal challenge not a race, I kept reminding myself, but even so was pleased I wasn't the last of 'the pinks' to get round.

Friendly and encouraging 'stewards' in kayaks kept a watchful eye on us swimmers and, at the finish, the welcoming roar of the crowd was uplifting and felt just as good to me as winning any Wimbledon final! 

Thank you to all who've so kindly responded so far. My Just Giving page witll remain open for a few more weeks for anyone who'd like to support retrospectively - but no pressure please as the family has made so many past calls of your support in memory of Steve for which Richard Nigel and myself have been hugely grateful.

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