I shall be swimming the length of Coniston in the Lake District in June (joining the Chillswim event). It is 5.25 miles from end to end and although I have been training hard, I need all the encouragement I can get so I decided that if I ask people to sponsor me for two charities that are very close to my heart, then I have to go through with this mad idea. Please give what you can.

The Early Years Alliance is a charity that has been important to me since I was a mum with young children. I attended their playgroups overseas and in this country. Little did I know then, that the Early Years Alliance would support me when I was running a children's nursery or that I would go on to become its Chair!

The Early Years Alliance is a registered educational charity, which represents 14,000 members and supports them to deliver care and learning to over 800,000 families every year. The Alliance itself provides pre-school education and care for children in areas of disadvantage. See more about the Early Years Alliance here https://www.eyalliance.org.uk/

I would love to support the Alliance in the amazing work that it does by raising some much needed funds so I would be really grateful for any donations you could make.

Childline is a free, private and confidential service where anyone under 19 in the UK can talk about anything. Childline is there to help with any issue they’re going through. On average, a child contacts Childline every 45 seconds and in 2023/24, our Childline counsellors provided 187,999 counselling sessions to children and young people.

I have been a volunteer counsellor with Childline for 3 years now and it has been a real eye-opener to see the need that young people have for someone to listen and offer support. The demand for Childline's service is huge and I really want to help Childline to continue to be there for every child that feels the need to reach out for support so I would be really grateful for any contributions you could make to spur me on with my fundraising swim.