Hi, I’m Kate and I’m hoping to raise funds for Surfers against Sewage. The natural environment is at the centre of both my professional and personal life, as a landscape architect and a keen open water swimmer, so the protection and enhancement of our rivers, lakes and seas is really important to me.

I used to swim in the River Dee and off the North Wales coast, but in recent years the water quality has been a concern. But the long term effects of sewage, microplastics and road and field run-off on wildlife are far more dire.

Surfers against Sewage are a grass roots charity based in Cornwall, campaigning for the protection and conservation of oceans, monitoring water quality and lobbying government and industry, across the UK.

So this year I would like to raise awareness of these issues by supporting Surfers against Sewage and challenging myself to swim the length of three lakes in the Lake District this summer. I’ll be swimming Coniston in June, Ullswater in July and Windermere in August. That’s a total of more than 23 miles!

If you can, please donate to raise funds for this amazing charity. Your money will be well spent, for example:

£30 could pay for a school beach clean.

£60 could help pay for the training and equipment of their volunteer regional reps.

£100 could help them deliver a plastic-free schools educational workshop.

And please share my challenge, and the brilliant work that Surfers against Sewage do, with your network.