We can all be guilty of speaking before we think and there’s no doubt that’s exactly what I did when someone told me about the opportunity to swim the English Channel  in a relay team within the next 12 months.

“OMG – where do I sign up?” was what I said even though I hadn't swam any distance at all since before my girls came along. But I knew if I put my mind to it, I could do it.

I will endure temperatures around 15c (to give some context of water temps, a local pool  is usually around 28c), jelly fish, swells and tides. And there's still a lot to do before we start from the shores of Dover in 8 weeks time - overnight swims, qualifier swims, sea swims. But I am determined. As I sit here writing this story, I am missing valuable training time with tonsillitis which is worrying me somewhat. But this won't get me down, I will do this challenge and what will get me there is my team support and my mental strength.

I realise EVERY day how lucky I am to have good mental health and no-one should take it for granted. Anxiety and depression is experienced by so many people every day and I can't think of any of my friends or family who haven't been affected either directly or indirectly by it.

So when thinking of a charity to support, MIND seems the obvious choice. The local Manchester charity is MANCHESTER MIND who work tirelessly to support people in the community as well as raise awareness to stop people feeling ashamed, a word that should never be associated with any illness.

Please, please, please do support me and this fantastic charity as much as you can. When I have my head down in the dark waters heading for France, with very little visually to look at to distract me from what is beneath the surface (apart from tankers and ferries, did I mention it is the busiest shipping channel in the world?), your support and the help this will provide, will 100% keep me going.

Thank you for reading and updates will follow x