Swimming 1 mile of Lake Windermere (I’m terrified of swimming open water)

The Great North Swim 2014 at Lake Windermere is the final challenge I signed up for, although you could ask why bother after attempting a killer swim challenge not long before it. For me, this is a completely different kind of challenge which includes endurance with battling fears of swimming open water. The water is ice cold, it is very deep, it has currents which will make it hard to swim… even harder when I’m doing breaststroke and the vast majority are doing a faster front crawl pulling away from me 😥

I have never done any open water swimming apart from once when I was young and I stupidly tried to swim across Rivington Reservoir, getting cramp half way across, struggling to swim for my dear life. Luckily I managed to tread water to a boat in the middle of the reservoir, got in it, cast off and waited for the slow current to take me back to shore whilst suffering from mild pneumonia – that was a fun day.

I have joined the Salford Watersports Centre to train myself and get better at open water swimming prior to the challenge. I believe that I should be fit enough to complete the challenge but it’s definitely a case of mind over matter.

The money raised with be added to the money raised for Challenge One (7th May 2014) – Swim 1,000 x 25m pool lengths and will be split between two charities, Kidz2gether and Daytrippers Bolton. These are two fantastic charities which support children and families in a variety of important and fantastic ways. They have both been instrumental in supporting my own family members and those I work with in my various voluntary roles.

Daytrippers Bolton is a parent and carer led registered charity that provides days out and activities for disabled children and their families.

Kidz2gether support and introduce children and young people between the ages of 5 and 16, within mainstream education who have social and/or communication difficulties (autistic spectrum disorders) into inclusive social settings. They do this by planning and managing specially created groups & clubs and support the families of these children and young people.

Please please please give a little of what you can to these fantastic charities. This challenge is going to absolutely kill me and any donations no matter how small or large will be very well received by each charity and also a MASSIVE encouragement to spur me on.

I’m also spending a lot of my own cash to pay for new equipment (wetsuit, drysocks, trisuit), an event entrance fee, transport to and from Windermere and a club training membership for when I do my training – all so I can set myself up for the challenge as best as I can.

Every penny raised will go to these two charities, none of my personal funds will be reimbursed.

I have set up a joint charity joint challenge donation page which you can donate to by clicking this link. Please give whatever you can, whether it’s big or small, even if it’s just a £1 – it will all help and be very well received by each charity.