Thank you for looking ... I will try to keep this posted with pictures of awfulness as I step up my training. I have committed to swim in a 4 person Channel relay in September. This is a lot harder than it sounds, A LOT harder!

I only learned to swim front crawl when I was 55, I swam The Solent, and have competed in a few 10Ks since then, but this is my fiercest challenge yet. So, if you fancy sponsoring Granny Alli to jump in the cold sea, in the dark, swim for an hour, get out, get in swim for an hour, get out, get in swim for an hour, get out, get in swim for an hour ... no wetsuit, lots of jelly fish and worst, worst of all - the nausea, please do! Tiny boat, rocky sea. And it's the Channel. It's grim. But then if it was lovely it wouldn't be a challenge would it?

Our team is called Channel 4 and my lovely team mates are Brett, Paul and Poppy. 

This weekend saw me in Dover again with the intrepid Dave Dawson - and it was grim. Cold, raining and I suffered severe nausea in the sea, for the first time. No wetsuit rules of course and though it had warmed up from 10.8 last week, just under 12 degrees isn't that warm, so I was pleased with my 40 minutes. 

I am beginning to realise what I have taken on. 

I've also been training with the Aspire teams, who are wonderful encouragement and have very generously let me tag along even though I am raising money for Keech.

Some of you will know that swimming the Channel is quite a costly business, but I am paying all this myself so any sponsorship you send will help our seriously ill children and their families in Hertfordshire, not to my swim itself.

You can read more at www.keech.org.uk/braveherts