As many of you know this time last year I was diagnosed with something called severe Aortic Valve Regurgitation. I was told to stop exercising and await an appointment for a Cardiothoracic surgeon to arrange open heart surgery to replace my failing valve......wait what?????!!!!! As you can imagine it was a bit of a shock to not only to me and my family but to my friends too. Unbeknown to me I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve which over time began to fail which resulted in my diagnoses.

I had my open heart surgery on 3 rd May 2022 and since then I have been trying to get my fitness levels back up to where they were pre diagnoses. I could not have done this without the support of the amazing Croydon Cardiac Rehabilitation team. They gave me the confidence that I needed to push myself to be able to embark on my Valversary Swimathon.

My plan is to swim at least 1mile (64 lengths of a 25m pool) once a week over the next 3 months doing my last mile on my Valversary - 3rd of May 2023.

So if you can donate anything to help this amazing cause which help so many people following many different cardiac events to get their confidence back i would greatly appreciate it.

You never know if I get enough sponsors I might try and swim 1- 2 miles a week and end up swimming the equivalent of the English Channel.....watch this space.

Thankyou all in advance for your support and encouragement over the next 3 months.