Life works a bit like a river. Sometimes it's smooth going and sometimes you have to deal with twist, turns, and massive rocks trying to tip you over.

Respect ME work with young people up and down the country trying to help them navigate some of the choices that affect how easy it is to avoid some of the big rocks life can throw at us (like relationships, self-harm, substance abuse, or exploitation).

To raise funds for Respect ME & The Message Trust i'm proposing to launch myself down a river in a kayak and try and avoid ending up in the water after bouncing off some rocks.

I'm hardly an olympic standard paddler (generally i'll do maybe 4 miles on flat water a week) so it would be great if you could donate to make it worth my while.

The original plan was to set off from Marple on the River Goyt and follow the water downstream until it's become the River Mersey and go as far as Barfoot Bridge where i could swap on to the Bridgewater Canal and finish up as close to Dunham School Bridge (the current end of the Bridgewater Canal since the collapse in January) as possible.

As I'm not quite insane enough to attempt that kind of paddle on my own I've had to make the route a little shorter to accommodate the rest of my team who are all willing but newer to paddling. As a result we're likely to be skipping the Goyt and just doing Stockport downstream to the canal.

That brings the total mileage to about 15 miles.

If i get over my goal I'll add some extra lengths on the canal to add some distance.