Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I am taking on the challenge of swimming the English Channel as part of a relay team with five other amazing swimmers (Jane Sawyer, Folly Golding, Sylvia Rolfe, Helen Devlin and Helen Towers).We are Team Aspire Pandas and all of us have already starting training for this challenge in August 2026.

I am raising funds for Aspire, a remarkable charity dedicated to helping and supporting individuals with spinal cord injuries. Supporting people from injury to independence. Every two hours someone in the UK is paralysed by a spinal cord injury. Aspire is an amazing charity and I’m proud to take on this challenge and raise money for their vital work.

So why this challenge? I started open water swimming 6 years ago, the feeling of swimming in open water is fantastic. Through swimming I have met some wonderful people, including those who I will be taking on this challenge with! Since starting open water swimming I have taken on many challenges, which have been tough! This swim will be the toughest yet! It has the added challenges of darkness, salt water, sea sickness, jelly fish and shipping to dodge!

After being diagnosed with breast cancer two and a half years ago, I received a huge amount of support from the open water swimming community. I am grateful I am still here to take on the challenge of swimming the channel. I also received amazing support from the Team Phoenix charity. They helped me train for my first ever triathlon and they are still helping me train for this next challenge. They gave me my wings, so that I could rise from the ashes of cancer - burning brighter, soaring higher, reborn as a Phoenix forged in fire! A Phoenix ready to take on my next challenge of swimming the channel!

Thanks for reading this and please consider sponsoring me for one of the toughest open water challenges there is.

Thanks, Rachel

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