Someone said to me last year, when I told them I had started cold water swimming, "You surely have to be weird to do that." And I thought, well, I fit right into that category then!

So, I have to be honest, I have done this before. However, for these 7 dips, I'm going to find the coldest water I can around where I live and stay in it for at least 5 minutes. Anything under 15 is classed as cold water. I am going to aim for as many under 10 as I can find!

I am doing this challenge in memory Sam Morrish, the son of some close friends of ours. Sam was 3 years and 8 months old when he died suddenly and unexpectedly from sepsis, just 2 days before Christmas 2010. He had been suffering with a nasty bout of flu, which led to a secondary strep infection which in turn led to sepsis.

Despite his parents, Sue and Scott, asking for help from various NHS organisations in his last 24 hours, it wasn’t recognised until it was too late. Back in 2010, there was very little awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis, a condition that Sam’s parents had never heard of. Since Sam’s death, they have campaigned tirelessly for greater awareness of sepsis, and a symptom checker leaflet was developed to help parents, which is now available from The Sepsis Trust.