So Suzy from Serco who oversee all the Bolton community pools asked me to contact her and last night we had a good chat.

To be honest, I thought the phone call was going to be a series of questions in regards to what I need to do etc etc but in fact it was the other way round and what they can do for me such as:

• giving me a lane completely to myself for the duration of the day
• no cost to hire the lane for the day
• putting up information on their website and social media
• putting up posters in the Horwich Leisure Centre and setting up a bucket on the day so that people can come along and donate as I go

Some information and advice she gave me was:

• Make sure I see my GP prior to doing this
• Do lots of training beforehand
• Make sure I take regular breaks (as if I’m fit enough to do it in one go – there’d be a ginger blob at the bottom of the pool otherwise)
• Regular hydration and nutrition during the swim
• At intervals change my strokes from breaststroke to backcrawl to ease my muscle groups, back etc.
• Get someone to watch or come in at intervals to chat to me and keep a tally of my progress. Maybe update a board on the bucket etc.

I was rather overwhelmed with the support they’ve given me and I immediately felt a huge amount of pressure to get this done. But, I reassured her that I’m not going to smash it as it’s an endurance challenge. I’ll do plenty of training beforehand with the correct nutrition and energy supplements to make sure I’ll be ready!