So it seems that swimming to France with 5 pals last year just wasn’t enough for me and somehow I find myself in a situation that will see me (during the week of 9th – 16th August 2014) swim with 3 pals to France and then turning around and swimming straight back – yes I seem a glutton for punishment!

So we are 2 swimmers less and doubling the distance – meaning being more tired as it will take us about 30 hours to complete, having to swim through a night (not looking forward to this) and seeing more jellyfish! … as well as all the other challenges of swimming across the English Channel – remember we can only wear a swimming costume (no wetsuits allowed), a swim hat and a pair of goggles and the temperature in the sea doesn’t get warmer than 16 degrees.

I am saying goodbye to my Flamingo pals (although it seems Paul is as crazy as me and is coming along too) and say hello to my new team – COSMIC Rays.

Training has started and Paul, Hilary and I were over in Lanzarote last month for a week and managed around 50km of swimming each (that’s 2000 lengths of a pool), next step (on top of the usual indoor pool swimming) are the trips down to Dover and swimming up and down the harbour in the cold water over the weekends but I’ll update you on that once we start.

COSMIC Rays are going to be undertaking this massive challenge to raise money for an children’s intensive care unit based at St Mary’s Hospital.  It’s a really tough challenge but I do believe that the children that are admitted to this unit have to fight bigger challenges day in day out at such a young age that it is a small challenge for us adults to take on to help them lead better and more comfortable lives.

If you have a few pennies to spare and want to help us help them then you can do so here or click on the donate button above.

COSMIC Rays – Me, Parviz, Paul & Hilary