Hi I am Sam, live in Weston-super-Mare and have worked for Allianz for 21 years.

In 2021 I decided to start swimming purely as a way to relax. I found I could switch off my mind and focus on breathing, so what started as one day a week increased to three or more. I was predominantly a runner and was lucky enough to run my first marathon for Allianz in Athens in 2019. My sheer determination of 6.5 hours to finish it made me decide last year that I should push myself further and try to join the Allianz team for the English Channel Relay.

I am so pleased and proud of myself that I am now part of the team with six other colleagues to swim the channel in July as part of Allianz Path to Paris. I am sure I will push myself to overcoming all the hurdles and fears that surround swimming the English Channel. My biggest concern is swimming in the dark and what else is in the water with me. I only started cold water swimming in October 2023 when I signed up for this challenge and it’s been a rollercoaster the training and more recently having whooping cough which restricted training and I’m not yet fully recovered.

I have set up an Instagram page for people to follow my journey at samanthathompson5913

Please sponsor me for as much as you can afford to push me through the amount of training and commitment it will take to complete this challenge. I am just a wife, mum of two and dog owner where most of my friends and family think I am completely nuts to do this.

** Note just giving automatically add a tip to your donation when you select the payment method but you can amend the amount or change to nil (o) if you dont want to leave a tip for just giving to run the page.**