I love swimming! It is fast becoming my new favourite thing. But I wanted to turn this into more than just exercise and not only take on a personal challenge but raise money for a very worthy cause at the same time. Working in the charity world myself I need to put my (or technically your) money where my mouth is and step up to some fundraising myself!  

My challenge? The Aspire Channel Swim 2019! To swim the equivalent of the English Channel in 12 weeks. That's 22 miles. In 12 weeks. Except that's not good enough for my competitive streak and I'm therefore attempting to do it in 8 weeks instead. To give it a bit more perspective that will be 1,416 lengths of a standard 25 metre swimming pool.   

Fortunately I can confirm you will not receive photos of me half way across the channel basted in Vaseline (apparently that's a thing!) and my local pool won't permit photos (phew - nobody needs to see that!) but Aspire have a great online tool where I will monitor my progress and be honest with my sponsors about said progress!  

I don't often ask people to sponsor me for things but this challenge will really mean a lot to me. The cause is amazing and the charity do such fantastic things for those paralysed by Spinal Cord Injury. I'm aiming to raise £280 which will help patients in hospital be given rehabilitation and education, helping them to make the transition between hospital and home.  

Swimming has helped me a great deal both with my physical and mental wellbeing and I'm happy to be able to give something back at the same time.

Every four hours someone is paralysed by Spinal Cord Injury and Aspire provides the essential equipment, advice and housing that spinal cord injured people need to live their lives independently. This is a big challenge, but the more I raise, the more of a difference I'll make, so please be generous!