I was 5 years old when my mother was first diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought a courageous battle, and initially won! Unfortunately, this was not the end and my mother fought numerous subsequent battles against the disease which ultimately spread throughout her body, and she died when I was 11 years old. What is sad, is that my story is not unique. So many of us are impacted by this disease, which is why I've decided for the first time to raise money and help those affected by cancer, by taking on a challenge outside of my comfort zone.

The Alcatraz Swim is 3.2 km long, in 13 – 15 degrees water, with a risk of strong currents, waves and even sharks. I admit that with my climbing background, I've taken on some extreme challenges before. However, the Alcatraz Swim will be something on a whole new level for me. I've found swimming a challenge most of my life, and therefore always sought to stay on top of the water or close to land! Listening to Baz Luhrmann's "Everyone's Free" song, his advice to "do one thing every day that scares you" has always stuck with me.

Unfortunately, with my constant desire to listen to Baz, I found myself standing on the beach one January intent on "a quick dip". Despite my fear of the cold and the waves, I pushed on and was soon caught in a strong rip. I escaped after some frantic paddling, near hyperthermic, but alive. This experience has stuck with me and on occasion without warning or reason, and often in the flattest of conditions, I have an overwhelming fear of the abyss below me. I've taken steps to address this and convinced Dave Tonge to teach me how to swim better than my survival/prevent drowning approach! With Dave’s help my swimming has improved significantly and I’ve even managed to completed some swimming events. Dave cheerfully suggested a new challenge, to help overcome my fear, and here we are!

The hardest thing about this challenge will be putting in the frequent training sessions, (which I will be self-funding). I'll be working on both my swimming and the mental strategies to address my fear of the abyss! For me, the training is almost as challenging as the doing for this one. From building cold water tollerance, to the early morning swim sessions before work will all be tough, especially during the winter months.

This once-in-a-lifetime challenge will be an opportunity to contribute to the Velindre Cancer Centre, hopefully preventing someone from having to go through what I did when I was a boy. It will also be a struggle for me to "keep my s*^t together" during the training and the challenge, to ensure that Velindre will receive the sponsorship money following the completion of the event.

Thank you for being a part of this journey, and for supporting the work of Velindre Cancer Centre. I'll be posting updates as the challenge progresses, so please check back in, (if only to see the cold water suffering!) Together we can make a difference.