Romilly's Solent Swim

Researching this swim I found a blog that suggested that while the westerly route across the Solent was the shortest it was also the most treacherous with strong currents and WHIRLPOOLS. As someone who is often scared by seaweed I found this a little off putting. However there is no getting out of it now - I am loathe to let the hours spent pounding the lengths in Gospel Oak lido go to waste - so on the 5 September I shall be swimming from the coast of Hampshire to the Isle of Wight, possibly with my eyes closed. I will be focusing on the fact that in Primary School I got my lifesaving award (bronze) which meant that I am qualified to rescue someone wearing pyjamas, so long as they let me take them off and fashion them into a float.

The first £250 I raise will go to West Wight Sports Centre Trust. After that it will be spilt between WWSC and the Duchenne Trust.

WWSC is a truly life enhancing place on the Isle of Wight. In this amazing and vital centre - kids are taught to swim, new mothers have groups and support, there are fitness and social events for pensioners and the hard of hearing, plus the kind of youth club events that would actually keep you off the streets - from trampolining to kayaking. The real heart of the community - yet since council funding has been cut it only stays open through fund raising events like this.

The Duchenne Trust is a charity set up by my friend Emily Crossley, who's son Eli has been diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. DMD is a degenerative condition that leads to paralysis and early death. Scientists suggest that they could be close to finding drugs that might alter that bleak prognosis, but there has not been the funding to get them out of the lab and into clinical trials. Emily has an urgent need to change that. In her words - "Our mission quite simply is to raise money to give to the best global research effort to fund a treatment or cure in time to save Eli's life and the hundreds of thousands of other boys like him." To read more about the work they are doing go to dc-trust.org.

Thank you for your support. I am very grateful for it. It shall spur me on when I look down and it all looks a bit black.

with love and thanks,
Romilly