Well, this beached whale needs to lose weight and has decided to rise to the challenge of swimming 'The Channel' in a pool over the Summer.

Why? I don't usually write this stuff, but ... I'm going for the sympathy vote and hoping at least one of you will sponsor me!

You may think, 'she's swimming... that'll be a piece of cake as you lived at the pool and used used to swim like a fish!'

However, what most of you don't know is that the more I swam, the more lax my ligaments became. This resulted in surgery (realignments of the quadraceps mechanism) to fix my two reoccuring dislocating knee caps. Not all bad, swimming is great if you're asthmatic and was a life line when I damaged my back at the age of 12.  Although I cherish my shattered disc in a bottle, the area around where it was removed is weak and has been an ongoing burden.  As you can imagine, it caused complications during pregnancy and childbirth. 

Approximately seven years ago, four discs around the area decided to bulge and I have been left with muscle wastage in my left leg and a numb left foot. When I swim, I have no power in my left leg and just go through the motions on the one side. For this reason, I avoid the pool so wish me luck as I know it is going to be hard going!  Maybe, just maybe it will strengthen the leg in some way!  If not, I'll cheat and swim with a pullbuoy! 

Now for the begging bit ... If you don't want me to drown, please sponsor me 50p!  It's going to a great cause ...

Every eight hours someone is paralysed by a Spinal Cord Injury and Aspire provides the essential equipment, advice, housing and grants that spinal cord injured people need to live their lives independently.