Andrew cox
Dominic's page
Fundraising for Level Water
Story
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
I have always loved being in the water generally and swimming especially. As those of you who have known me long enough will know, this part time fun has turned into a bit of a passion over the past few years. While I could eulogise for hours on what I think are the myriad health benefits of swimming (both physical and mental), that's not what this page is about. It's about raising some awareness and cash for an incredible charity.
While I do like to challenge myself a little more than is always wise (a 10k swim in open water fits this to a tee), once in a while an opportunity comes up to give back a just little bit of something that has inspired you. Level Water have given me just such a chance.
I'm sure I'm not alone here and that we all believe that every child should have a fair start in life. Unfortunately sometimes life is shit, and those that are born with a disability just do get far fewer opportunities in life than the rest of us. Subsequently every day disabled kids are missing out on so much of what we all take for granted in our everyday lives. I'd think nothing of going for a swim with my daughters, but then I don't have to deal with all the complexities that face a family with a disabled child. More often than not for those that do, something as simple as a quick trip to the local pool is impossible, resulting in kids missing out on one of the simplest and enriching experiences in life. While swimming isn't going to solve all the ills of the world, it does give a sense of freedom, joy and achievement to kids the world over.
Level Water are making this simplest of pleasures available to disabled children too by teaching them to swim.
For children who can’t access group swimming lessons, Level Water provide a whole year of one-to-one lessons to teach them the basics. They then help the children integrate successfully and even progress on to competitive clubs. Without their work, the vast majority of disabled children will never learn to swim. Level Water is currently working at 20 sites across the country and teaching 10,000 lessons a year. With our help they can continue to grow to new towns and cities, giving every disabled child a fair start in sport.
So to try and give more children the chances in life we all take as a given, I'm going to attempt to swim further than I've ever done before AND try and do it in under 3 hours. Sounds tricky? It's more than an hour slower than the winning time at this distance at the last Olympics. In the back of my mind I'd really like to get to within an hour of that Olympic time of 1:50..(that's another 10 minutes under an already ambitious target time!). In my most recent outing, last Saturday morning, I managed to get over the 3 km mark in just under an hour, it was a pace that was really hard work and exhausting. Given the fatigue and the leap into the unknown that is a10 km swim it's going to be very tough indeed, but I'm training hard as and when I can, putting in the laps to give myself a chance. It really is going to be my biggest challenge yet. What I really need now is a little encouragement from you all to push me on to get to my target. I'm putting the River Dart water where my mouth is... What can you do?
I am very aware of how difficult life is for everyone at the moment, but if you do have a moment and a couple of spare pennies, I'd be very grateful if you can donate something. Even if it's just a message of support. Anything you can offer will be very gratefully received to help me go the distance and get even more kids splashing about in the water.
Thank you
Dom
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