This year when I was wondering about what challenge to set myself I decided to forget the running and just go back to what I love, swimming.  I was lucky enough to secure a place in the Dart 10k.  This is a 10km river swim in the river Dart in September and is a really iconic event in the open water swimming calendar.  Although I adore swimming, especially in open water, I am under no illusions about how tough this is going to be.  10km is the swimming equivalent of a marathon, and it's not as if I'm in peak physical condition!  But I have a summer ahead of me, lots of local lakes to swim in and an alarm to wake me at 5:30am so I can get there in time to swim for 2 hours before work!

This year I am raising money for the charity Shelterbox, an aid charity who give life changing, on the ground support for those who have been affected by natural disaster or humanitarian crisis.  I have come to know more about them over recent years as my Dad is a Shelterbox coordinator for his Rotary district (Rotary have been major supporters of the charity since it was founded in Cornwall in 2000 and official partners since 2012), and I have repeatedly been struck by the incredible work that Shelterbox do in times of crisis. What I really love about them is that they have worldwide deployment centres and a network of on the ground response teams, so they are able to provide this support quickly and without laying themselves open to political corruption or influence. As an example of their scale of activities, in 2010 they sent 28,417 Shelterboxes to Haiti following their devastating earthquake, and in recent months they have been very active supporting communities in the Philippines after the huge typhoon, meaning families can rebuild their lives immediately, rather than waiting until they have rebuilt their houses.

My target of £590 will provide a complete Shelterbox, which will be tailored for the specific disaster, but typically includes a disaster relief tent for a family, thermal blankets and groundsheets, water storage and purification equipment, solar lamps, cooking utensils, a basic tool kit, mosquito net and even a children's activity kit.  Even the box that it comes in serves a multitude of purposes and has been known to act as a cot for babies born in the aftermath of crisis.  It would be amazing to know that the money I raise will be genuinely life changing for an entire family, so any support you can give me in reaching my target of a whole Shelterbox would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you for visiting my page - and let me know if you fancy joining me at the lake for a training swim (it doesn't need to be at 6am!) 

Nic x