By Alex D Year 10

This summer, I am swimming the English Channel to raise money for charity. Albeit not by myself (not this year at least!), but as a part of a relay with 5 other people, each doing 2 hour swims, taking it in turns until we reach France. The charity I am doing this for is ‘Cosmic’ which specialises in fundraising for Paediatric Intensive Care Units, specifically at St Mary’s and Queen Charlotte’s hospitals. This charity means a lot to me as I was hospitalised with Covid-19 in October 2021 when I was 13, and eventually I was put into the ICU at St. Mary’s, so I am doing this swim to try and fundraise for the people who helped save my life and all the research they do to help other children with life-threatening illnesses. I’ve started a Just Giving page to do the fundraising, and I am doing a bake sale at school to help raise money, as well as my parents doing an auction for a signed Adam Peaty shirt that was kindly gifted to us. The goal is to raise £2000, and so far, I have raised £1800, and I am so incredibly grateful to everyone who has donated and helped me.

This swim is a completely new challenge for me as before April of this year I had only ever swum in the nice, safe, confines of heated indoor swimming pools; it was a bit of a shock switching to a lake at 13c, even with a wetsuit on! To keep my fitness up I have been carrying on with my normal routine of 8 sessions of pool swimming and 2 gym sessions a week, but have added 2 more sessions of swimming in a lake so I can get used to swimming outdoors. As well as this, Ms Newman has kindly helped me learn all the techniques for open water at school.  My next step is to adjust to swimming in open water without a wetsuit, as for the channel swim you are not allowed to wear one. (Although my main concern is the animals in the channel, not the cold water!)

Huge good luck to Alex and if you would like to donate to her amazing cause, please see her Just Giving page. Thank you for your support.