The challenge:

Swimming 1.092 miles on the hour, every hour for 24 hours straight.

A total of 26.2 miles, the standard marathon distance, but in the water!

When:

14th -15th July 2023.

Where:

Sunny Bank Farm, Coniston Water in the Lake District.

Why:

25% of people in Britain don't feel they could swim 25 metres, or one length of a standard pool. But even more shocking, a study by the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) found that in children, this figure goes up to 33%.

The national curriculum states that children should be able to swim at least 25m by the time they leave Primary School, but the ASA found that 13% of children hadn't even been offered the opportunity to learn to swim.

Forgetting about the vast physical and mental health benefits of swimming for a second, this means millions of people haven't had the opportunity to learn the basic skills needed, simply to save themselves from drowning.

Swim England aims to fix this by working to give every child leaving school the skills to be able to have fun in the water safely with their friends and family.

As someone who has become a regular and 'active' swimmer in the past 2 years, I've experienced first hand the huge mental and physical health benefits that come with swimming, whether in the pool or in open water.

I firmly believe everyone should be given the chance to learn to swim, if not for these benefits, then at the very least to teach them how to stay alive in the water.