Thank you so much for taking your time to sponsor me, it means the world to me!

Swimming the channel has been a dream for many years and this is the start of a great adventure for me.

I would love to swim the Channel solo but a relay is a great place to begin and please allow me to explain.... just because this is a relay does not mean this will not be just as tough a journey/challenge!

I have been paired with five other swimmers to swim this relay; we all have a passion to swim the channel and a joint aim to raise funds for Aspire.

We have been assessed between a level 1, 2 and 3 swimmer with level 1 being the strongest of swimmers - I am really chuffed to be assessed as a 1 as this means all my hard work/training is starting to pay off.

It is massively important that over the next few months we work closely together to train and bond as a team. If one of us does not manage a swim and touches the boat/get's out without finishing the allocated time, it means the swim stops - no swapping over until our full hour has been completed, and so by training and getting to know each other we can form a strong bond to achieve this joint goal and support each other.

So it goes a little like this; first of all we need to learn to acclimatise. Swimming in the cold without a wetsuit; a wetsuit is NOT an option as this would mean it wouldn't be an official qualifying channel swim, so instead we have a number of training days in Dover to help us learn to acclimatise.

Now I do not not hide my weakness for the cold but with my determination to swim the channel comes with, what I am determined will be, a bigger strength to succeed!

The number one fails for a channel swim to not succeed isnt in-fact the cold but instead is sea sickness and here's a little explanation why, other than the obvious of being on a very small boat in the middle of the sea (yes a SMALL boat)!

On the day, all 6 of our team members get on our boat and we swim for 1 hour each 2 or 3 times and in between we have five long cold and choppy hours on a boat, helping each other achieve our joint goal!

All our funds raised goes to Aspire http://www.aspire.org.uk/ and I urge you to please learn about this fantstic charity by please visiting this website.

Thank you so much again for taking the time to read this and helping support me on my journey!