24 years ago, when I was much younger, fitter and possibly wiser, I used to swim. I used to swim a lot, I swam for several different swimming clubs. I was county champion at different events and I dreamed of being an Olympic swimmer and potentially being the youngest person to swim the channel. Mornings, evenings and weekends would find me training with one swimming club or another, my poor parents ferrying me around all over the midlands so that I could train with the best. I was lucky enough to have some brilliant coaches and had several master classes led by Olympic swimmers such as Duncan Goodhew and Nick Gillingham. Then I started playing rugby with my school, a great game that I was good at but would never excel in. Still it was required as part of my PE lesson so I played. My build led me to play in the front row of the scrum as hooker and one day on the sports pitch something happened that changed the way my life was heading. There I was in a scrum and one prop collapsed as bad luck would have it the prop on the other side stood up at the same time. With my arms being wrapped around their necks I was stretched. My head snapped to the side and my shoulder injury, which to this day I can't spell due to being dyslexic, occurred. I had torn the nerves that went down my right arm from where they enter the spine in the base of the neck.
At first no one knew what was wrong and every day the pain in my arm got worse, I couldn't swim, I couldn't do anything. I lost pretty much all feeling in my right arm and slowly I stopped being able to move it. This went on for nearly 6 months until I ended up getting refered to a sports injury doctor who was brilliant and managed to diagnose my injury. I spent the next 12 months in a sling and then some. My teachers wrote out my school notes so I didn't get too far behind and I learnt how to write with my left hand. When I was finally able to swim again several years later I was good but no where near as good as I was, not to mention that I kept aggravating my injury. Eventually I stopped swimming around the time I turned 18, knowing that I would never be as good as I wanted or could have been. However I considered myself lucky as I still had the use of my right arm even if I still struggle to feel temperature with my hand to this day.
Then a few years ago, I went to the local swimming pool near my work as an attempt to get fit. The moment I got back in the water I remembered how much I loved swimming, however several years of no exercise and too much beer left me frustrated as I could barely swim 100m without being exhausted. In late November 2012 I noticed a flyer for the Aspire Channel Swim, a challenge to swim the distance of the channel in your own pool over several weeks. It gave me something to aim for, was a way to do something for charity and my swimming fitness improved dramatically. Now I didn't know anything about Aspire at the time but I looked into what they did and was amazed they help people all over the country with spinal injuries. While my shoulder injury was serious it doesn't even compare to spinal injuries that stop people from walking or worse. I remembered how scared I was as a young lad being told that I might not have full use of my right arm and that I was lucky as a few more months without a diagnosis could have left me without the use of my arm. I signed up for the swim there and then and have been trying to raise money for them ever since.
As one challenge ended another began, I was sent a flyer about swimming to the Isle of Wight.
I thought about it for a while (about 10 minutes) and then... Challenge Accepted!
In 2013 a group of us swam to the Isle of Wight for Aspire, all of us without wetsuits (do not try this on your own the tides are dangerous and you need a guide). We all had our own kayaker to guide us and protect us from other vessels and the odd angry seagull (I'll tell that story another time). Now despite being 106kg I'm still a surprisingly good swimmer and I think I surprised a few people by beating them to the beach. I was encouraged to do a harder swim like a channel relay but my competitive streak had reappeared, why should I do it as a relay? I always wanted to swim the channel so why not just do it. I promised myself while driving home from the swim that I would attempt a longer swim before making up my mind and here we are. The present day and my mind is made up!
Several emails went out on Tuesday the 3rd of June 2014 checking for availability for my channel swim, believe it or not there is limited availability in 2016 with 2015 being sold out. Thursday the 5th of June 2014 saw me put the deposit down for a slot at the beginning of August 2016.
So this is the beginning of the end, where I finally start training for something that I have wanted to do since I was 10 years old.
My August 2016 channel swim, 22 miles, 35.4km.
I must be mad!