WE DID IT!!  On Friday 25th September we took 14 long hours and 9 minutes to swim from a shingle beach at Dover to a pebble beach in France.  We got stung by jellyfish, we got very seasick and we got very cold - but we did have beautiful conditions, a calm sea, sun on our backs and a fantastic moon to finish the day.  We are all still recovering and are quite frankly exhausted!  Thank you all for your warm support and for donating so readily to such an amazing charity.  We are continuing to fundraise for Motivation until this page is completed so please do share our news with your friends and family.

It’s cold, it’s dirty, it’s busy, it’s full of stinging jelly fish and it’s a long way across.  However, when we get out of the water in France we hope to have raised at least £10,000 for a fantastic Bristol charity -  Motivation.   We believe in what they do.  They transform the lives of disabled people across the world who would never be able to take up a fantastic opportunity like swimming the Channel.

Without mobility, millions of disabled people in the developing world are unable to leave their homes, go to school or to work. Many are left to lie on the floor. Many more die from preventable complications. Motivation helps people to get the right wheelchair in the right way - to stay healthy, get mobile and play an active part in their communities.

We want our swim to raise awareness of the challenges faced by people with mobility disabilities in low income countries.  And we want to do our bit to help a child with cerebral palsy in Uganda to sit upright for the first time in her life; or to help a man with a spinal cord injury in Nepal to regain his confidence and learn the wheelchair skills he needs to earn an income and support his family; or to provide a basketball wheelchair to a teenager who feels left out and different because he can’t participate in sport with his disability.

It has been a dream of all of ours to swim The Channel, and we decided to face this challenge together as a team:  We are at present Kay Dowling, Jo Gow , Tim Down, Zoe Burton, Steve Cox and Bridget Ward.  We are training hard all year and acclimatising to cold water (not fun) so we can complete this challenge.  It is hard work, but we know it will be worth it when we raise £10,000 for such a brilliant cause.

Please support us on our swim (we are all a bit scared!) and help us to transform the lives of people like Oscar http://www.motivation.org.uk/what-we-do/who-we-help/oscar-okello/ 

Thank you!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.