Since 2nd Jan this year, I’ve hit Shoreditch Park pool at 6.25am each morning for 45 mins, Saturdays and Sundays too. On occasions when super early starts at trials did not permit that, I swam at 7pm. I’ve not missed a day - or else logged in on the Swimathon training app my due 45 mins daily in catch-up.

I’d like to mark that my dad has had the most excellent front-line cancer care thanks to the surgeons at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. He’s now in the clear. Thank god.

My efforts are dedicated to those three surgeons who treated and saved my dad; and so I’m trying to beat my personal best in *this year’s 3 x 5K Swimathon challenge*. If I raise over £1,000 before my first of those three timed swims this Friday, a local school-age boy or girl who’s already eligible for free local authority swim lessons can take a free place at this too.

Some of you know how important learning to swim has been to me. I was discharged from paediatric secondary care when I was eleven when a tricky hole in my heart was manageable for my parents. The consultant paediatrician who was personally commended in parliament for her life-long contribution to paediatric cardiac care when she retired was the lady I’d seen quite often and called “Granny Janet”.

Thank you ever so much for reading this.

Abi 🏊‍♀️⛵️⚖️