My Mother decided that she needed to get me swim lessons before I drowned. My swimming lessons naturally progressed to my admission to my town’s swim team. When I moved many years later, I swam for a club team and then my high school team. I loved it! I loved feeling my fingers cutting through the water and pulling myself along while my feet and legs beat the water mercilessly. Each day I attempted to go faster and to be stronger than the previous day. What happened you ask? Life, and tests and other things that slowly became more important happened.

Fast forward 10 years and I was diving into the sea and swimming along the coast as my husband and his parents walked along the beach. They thought I was crazy. They could not understand what I was thinking or why I would want to swim in the cold sea. They, like many others, did not understand me, but they soon came to see my passion for the open water.

I long to be near the beach or swimming in the sea. I love to run into the water and jump and play. It is even better and more entertaining when you are surrounded by others who feel the same way and who will swim with you. The energy I feel from the currents and waves while swimming is electric and addicting. The energy from the ocean feeds my soul and energises me. I also find peace and solace while sitting on the beach and watching the waves crash down on the sand. I also long for challenges and giving back to the beautiful world I am lucky to be a part of.

 

 So here we are, I have decided to take on my biggest challenge yet!!!!! The cogs in my brain began turning  in 2019 when my 6 year old son, who has Aspergers, was telling us we didn’t love him and he wanted to go away. He was saying that no one loved him, he was a bad boy and he wanted to give up ALL the time. This broke my heart every day and was NOT TRUE. Of course, we love him and we tell our children how much we love them all the time. Knowing first-hand how hard life is actually going to get for him as he grows older I wanted to do something to prove, to both my sons, the importance of mental strength, stamina and an unshakeable will to live and to push through the times when we all want to give up on life because, as we all know, life is definitely going to get harder.

This challenge began as getting my freestyle sprint time down and I also wanted to beat one of the lifeguards at work in a fifty-metre sprint. The challenge now? 

I am going to swim the Channel. The actual English Channel. Please donate at 

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 I am swimming the English Channel to show my boys they really can accomplish anything they want through hard work, strength, endurance and perseverance. I’m swimming the Channel next year but I would swim across the world for my boys.