Hello everyone,

This Saturday I swam the Solent from mainland England to the Isle of Wight. I don’t normally blow my own trumpet, due to both my character and my ribs. But I am uber happy with myself for achieving this. I might go so far as to say that I’m even a little smug.

The point of the swim was to raise money for a special little boy called Lewis Mighty. Lewis needs treatment for a form of cancer called Neuroblastoma. It is a type of cancer that attacks under 5’s mainly. Hopefully the money raised from this swim will go some way to help Lewis get the treatment he so desperately needs.

If you wish to donate, please click here.

I left Hurst Castle on the mainland at 9am and landed back on the Island an hour and twenty minutes later. The distance was meant to be a mile and a half, roughly 90 lengths of a regular twenty metre pool. Unfortunately a 4 knot tide had other ideas.

I ended up being dragged further and further from my landing destination and ended up swimming over 5000 metres in that time.

I was meant to be landing at Fort Albert, then that was impossible so Fort Victoria was the target. The tide once again had other ideas and I ended up being dragged way past Yarmouth and landed nearer to Shalfleet. 3 miles down the coast. It wasn’t ideal as people were waiting at Fort Victoria and I could have done with the support.

But to be honest, if I’d failed I would have to had walked down my main High Street butt naked that night. That was added incentive to get me across the line and on to Island soil.

I owe a massive debt of gratitude to Andy and Mandy Toms who supplied the support boat and made the whole thing possible. Also a big thanks to Tom Fastnedge for letting me use his wetsuit. Without it, I would have frozen to death.

But most of all, a massive thank you to all those that have donated and continue to donate. We’re looking on course to raise £2000 for Lewis which is a major achievement.

It’s much appreciated.

Lots of love. G x