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To celebrate my 60th Birthday I am doing 5 Big Swims - the Great North Swim in Lake Windermere on Sunday 16 June 2013 (1 mile completed in 40m 55s); the Yorkshire Swim (postponed due to bad weather to Sunday 1 September 2013 and completed in 34m 42s for the mile); Swimming Across The River Humber on Sunday 30 June 2013 at 11.30am (4.35 miles in 1hr 48m); the Great Manchester Swim at Salford Quays on Saturday 20 July 2013 at 12.35pm (1 mile completed in 34m 37s); and Swimming The Thames from Buscot Lock to Tadpole Bridge on 10 and 11 August 2013.

This is a description of the River Humber - 'Out there is a confusion of shifting sandbanks, swirling currents, treacherous channels - and mud, mud, inglorious mud. They all offer a potential hazard to the thousands of commercial vessels and pleasure craft which ply this busy inland stretch. Not for nothing does the Humber have the reputation as the world's second most dangerous navigable waterway - after Venezuela's mighty Orinoco.'

"The Humber deserves a lot of respect. You never know what challenge it might present even when the weather's apparently good," said TV documentary film-maker Paul Berriff, initiator of the Humber Rescue.

I have been training really hard most days, mainly at Albert Avenue Pool in Hull where I have been swimming for about 15 years. But more recently with our coach Keith Warner we were out at 7am on a Saturday morning swimming in open water at Billabong Watersports near Brandesburton, East Yorkshire or in the evening at 8 Acre Lake Dive Site near North Cave. After that we had several sessions swimming in the sea at Mappleton near Hornsea (very wild and big waves) and ended up with a practice in the Humber on 24 June before the big day on 30 June. That saw us cover 4.3 miles in crossing the Humber in 1 hour 48 minutes. It was very choppy but a wonderful experience.

Before that I participated in the Great North Swim in Windermere on Sunday 16 June and completed 1 mile in 40m 55s. I entered for the Yorkshire Swim at Pugney's in Wakefield over 1500m, but this event was postponed due to bad weather from 23 June 2013 to 1 September 2013 and I finally completed it in choppy conditions in 34m 42s. So I also entered the Great Manchester Swim over 1 mile on 20 July 2013 at Salford Quays and was very pleased with a time of 34m 37s.

Latest development was to arrange a 2 day swim of the River Thames from Buscot Lock to Tadpole Bridge, covering 13k over 2 days on 10-11 August 2013. Great fun and met some lovely people. River quite shallow, lots of reeds and swans, cows in the river and water a bit murky. Didn't feel the full shilling the day after!

Having completed the Great North Run last year at 59, I thought I needed some new challenges on reaching 60 and I joined up with some terrific people to train for my Big Swims. Thanks to all of them and particularly to Keith Warner for all their support.

My chosen Charity is MacMillan Cancer Support. Most families are touched by cancer at some stage and Macmillan do a wonderful job in giving patients and families the support they need. My Big Swims are just a small way of saying thank you to them for all the work they do.

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Thank you so much

Julian