I'm swimming a mile of London's Hyde Park Serpentine to raise money for Maggie's Newcastle, a place that was a second home for my best friend as he came to terms with a terminal osteosarcoma diagnosis in 2015.

Following some niggling knee pain when training to join the Met Police in London, Matt was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (bone cancer), a diagnosis that changed his life for the next two years. I watched him go through a huge number of courses of treatment including chemotherapy, immunotherapy and surgical interventions.  He was treated in the Freeman Hospital and supported expertly by Maggie's Newcastle for the next two years, until he died aged 28 in December 2017.

Maggie's helped not just Matt but his family, his friends and his community come to terms with such a life changing course of events, and do the same day in and day out for hundreds of other families throughout the North East and nationally.  They provide a safe haven, a calm space away from hospital, access to counsellors and trained advisers, and are ran entirely on charitable donations.

Last year Matt swam a mile in his local pool to raise money for similar causes and this year I'm hoping to make him proud by doing the same at 'Swim Serpentine', an annual charity swim in London's Hyde Park.