Are You Up For The Challenge
I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of the Aspire Channel Swim again this year. Both Paul and I will be taking part and we couldn’t be happier to be supporting such an amazing charity! If you followed our Aspire journey last year you might already know a little bit about the challenge and the reason we’re taking part. If not, let me tell you all about it and you never know, you might just fancy taking part too!
The Challenge
To swim the distance of the English Channel, that’s 22 miles, in your local pool over a 12 week period. Take on the challenge yourself or pull together a team. Do it your way and at your own pace. You can even track your progress across the Channel with the new length tracker, unlocking progress badges and fundraising milestones along the way.
The Reason
Aspire are a charity set up to help those with spinal cord injuries, something which I found out last year is more common than I realised. The stats are astonishing…
- Every eight hours someone is paralysed by Spinal Cord Injury
- The majority of spinal cord injuries are caused by road traffic accidents, falls and sporting injuries
- Males are most at risk as young adults (20-29) and females are most at risk in adolescence
- The incidence of falls in older people causing Spinal Cord Injury is growing as the population of the aged increases
- Spinal cord injury affects every bodily function and mental health
- After leaving hospital one in five spinal injury patients are forced to live in care homes for easy accessibility. This is commonly linked to 20-30% of people with spinal cord injury showing clinically significant signs of depression
Aspire is such a worthy cause that I’m proud to be taking part in the challenge and make a different in people’s lives who are affected by spinal cord injury.
My Journey
After being embroiled in a whole host of DIY at home, my exercise routine and even lengthy dog walks have taken a back seat. My Fitbit steps are atrocious! This for me is a great opportunity to kick my butt back into action and if you follow my story, you’ll know I absolutely love swimming. The pool at our David Lloyd Club is going to be perfect for us to train and take part in the challenge this year. I might even venture into the outdoor pool which I’ve been dying to try since the winter when I couldn’t bring myself to step out of those doors. Last year we were part of a relay team of ten. This year, Paul and I are taking on the challenge as a duo. That’s 11 miles each. It’s going to be amazing exercise for me and I know a real personal challenge for Paul, who openly admits he’s not the strongest swimmer.
Are you up for the Challenge?
Whether you fancy taking it on yourself, with your partner or in a team, you can find out more details here and the link to sign up.
