<p>What's this about?</p> <p><strong>UPDATE (18 Jan 2012)</strong></p> <p>The initial fundraising target was &pound;150. This has been well and truly busted now (574% of target as I write), because of the quite astonishing generosity of loads of good people. I'm intending now to leave the page open until the weekend, and am quietly (if publicly) hoping to hit &pound;1000. It's ambitious. Cheeky. If you're thinking of pitching in, please do so in the next day or so, while the page remains open. Many, many thanks.</p> <p>See below for more background.</p> <p><strong>Just a couple of weeks ago I decided that I'd try and swim a mile to mark the past poxy year.</strong></p> <p>The weeked of 15th January marks one year on from us getting the very shocking news that I'd got secondaries again after an apparently healthy 7-year gap. It's been a tricky year: a colossal operation gave rise to (ahem) 'critical complications', weeks in hospital and difficult months of very slow convalescence. Oh, and then diabetes. I'm still quite crocked - can't walk far and can't carry anything, quite a lot of 'discomfort' - but things are slowly, slowly getting better.</p> <p>And I can, however, swim. The mile is quite ambitious, though. I've been swimming half a mile, but the hike in just a couple of weeks upto a mile is quite a leap.</p> <p>Anyway, people have been very encouraging, and several people suggested asking for sponsorship, so here's the page. I'd be very grateful for anything you can donate.</p>