I'm raising money for The Emma Gyles Bursary, which has been set up to fund research by Manchester University MRes students into ovarian cancer research.

Emma was the light of so many people's lives and she made us all laugh and smile with her positive energy and off-the-wall jokes, one I remember was the time she covered her bathroom in post-it notes on which she'd just written the name of each object. Remembering her infectious laughter as she told this story brings a smile to my face every time.

I'm looking for donations large and small from both individuals and companies. The fundraising goal is the minimum target and I want to double that at least.

As I've only been doing the front crawl for 3 weeks (as of Jan 10 2016), the swim will be a massive challenge personally and training has begun. My longest swim so far has been 1 and a half hours and I expect the 10k to take something like 4 - 5 hours. For comparison, it's 2.5 times the distance of the swim portion of a full Ironman triathlon.

I will cover all event and training costs personally so any money you donate will go directly to the charity.

You can read details of the event here if you wish: https://www.facebook.com/events/907117256010793/

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.