Our Adventure (31.08.12 - 01.09.12)

Having picked Poppy from Folkestone Station at 22.10 the team were nee more together again and excited about their forming swim.  After making a load of bacon rolls and having our final tea and biscuit session we set off down to Dover Marina for 12.30am.  There were a couple of other groups of swimmers down there meeting their own pilots for their swim attempt, and the general atmosphere was a mixture of tension and excitement.

Sam (our official Channel Swimming Association Observer) met us in the car park and took us down to our boat Sea Leopard.  Stuart (our pilot) and Gary (the crewman) then helped us board Sea Leopard with our ridiculous amount of stuff (which included coke and lemonade that Alice had laboriously made flat the day before so that it wouldn't make us feel ill when we drunk it!)  After a safety briefing and all too quickly for our belief we were off out of the harbour and Alice, the first to swim, began to get ready.  At this point everything became a reality for us all and the realisation sunk in that we were finally getting to attempt our challenge and that the task ahead of us was a very hard one!

At around 1.10am Alice jumped off the boat (we always went for the jumping in method as opposed to slowly descending the steps at the back of the boat as it got the process of getting over the coldness done a to quicker!)  Following regulations Alice was wearing a standard swimming costume, hat and goggles, as well as Vaseline to stop any rubbing and 2 lightsticks, one attached to her hat and the other to the back of her swimming costume.  The boat halted about 200m from the British shoreline and Alice jumped in and swam to sure.  Having completely cleared the water and after a signalling horn from the boat she entered the water at 1.15am - our swim had begun!

Following the rules we each swam one hour, with the next swimmer having to over take the previous swimmer in the water before the previous swimmer could climb out.  The water was around 16 degrees Celsius, although rose by a couple of degrees as we neared the French coast.  It wasn't until around 5.30am (during Josie's first swim) that the sun began to rise and we could see anything while swimming.  Once the sun did properly rise the water was incredibly clear and we could see to our full arms length while swimming.  In terms of seeing wildlife we saw nothing while swimming apart from plankton (as they glowed in the darkness) and a flying fish during Amy's first swim as it jumped towards the boat.

During the first half of the swim our main problem was seasickness.  Despite following advice and taking sea sickness tablets long before we swam all of us apart from Poppy (lucky girl!) suffered with it to various extents.  Alice and Amy in particular really suffered and both did amazingly to get back in the water and do their second (and third in Alice's case) swims.  Throughout the challenge the sea sickness did begin to lift, in part due to the fact that we started taking on food which we were being advised to do but which felt anything but attractive at the time.  However, by the second half of the journey we were all well on the way to recovery and beginning to get back to the smiling and all singing team who had boarded the boat in the harbour!

The coldness as expected was also an issue - although at least this one was expected unlike the sea sickness!  We had all packed enough layers so that we could pile hoodies on someone once they returned to the boat after a swim and we developed a good system of jumping on a returned swimmer with towels, forcing them to change immediately into dry clothes and they attempting to make them eat and drink something.  We had been warned that despite taking piles of food on the boat we wouldn't consume a lot of it and this became true.  As all five of us have healthy appetites we took an abundance and huge variety of food on the boat and barely consumed any of it, even when the worst of the sea sickness passed!

The middle part of the swim when we seemed equidistant from Britain and France certainly seemed the longest.  The excitement of the beginning of the swim had died, France didn't seem to be getting any nearer and the sea sickness had kicked in for most people!  Crossing the shipping lanes was fine due to the expertise of the crew with us, and it was interesting to hear them on the radio to the huge tanker ships coming towards us in the distance and then them having to change their course for us!  We also saw plenty of ferrys ploughing back and forth between France and Britain, albeit at a much quicker rate than us!  Stuart, Gary and Sam were an incredible team to have onboard.  Not only did they give us the best possible chance of success with their expert navigating, but they also helped us to look after one another, looked out for us, kept us calm at times and provided copious amounts of very welcome cups of tea!  We really could't have done it without them and are very grateful for ally heir encouragement, support and expertise which were invaluable to us throughout the swim!

As we began to near France the excitement began to grow again as we realised that we could actually complete our challenge successfully - and also the worst of the sea sickness began to disappear!  We began to swim with more determination as the coast became clearer, particularly when told that the tides began to act in our favour as we heard the coast.  The weather (at last!) was good for the swim.  It was relatively smooth, apart from the odd more choppy patch such as the one in the middle of the channel when turbulence is created between the shipping lanes and near the ferry crossing points, and it only rained for around 40 minutes at around 5am lightly.  Although the sun didn't make a full appearance it peeped through the clouds every so often, particularly near France, and there was good visibility for the whole trip - including a nearly full and wonderfully clear moon when we set of in the darkness.

We all swam 2 hour long swims (one in darkness and one in daylight completely by coincidence) apart from Alice, who as the order had to stay the same had to swim three times meaning that she started and ended the swim.  Having overcome major seasickness (which had meant she had been leaning over the back of the boat and occasionally falling asleep there for a large proportion of the journey), she swum with amazing determination when we signalled to her that she could finish the swim.  Unfortunately the swim was finished on rocky land as opposed to a beach so the rest of her weren't allowed to jump off the boat and join her on French land - however we screamed and cheered n the boat as Alice ploughed through the last of the water and climbed clear of the water onto the rocks - we had done it!

Back on the boat there were huge celebrations all round!  Sam (our official observer) declared that we had successfully completed the swim in an incredible 10 hours and 50 minutes!  None of us could believe that despite both the expected and unexpected challenges, and over the last week of waiting we had managed to complete the swim and in such a fantastic time!  After Izzy tried and failed to spray the cava all over us we settled back into the boat, all singing and dancing again, to enjoy our success on the 2.5 hour boat trip back across the channel which we had just conquered!  The feeling is inexplicable and we couldn't stop grinning and hugging each over as we took in what we had managed to achieve.

Once we arrived back in Dover, most of us amazingly having managed a nap at some point on the way back, we unloaded our bags from the boat and said goodbye to Stuart, Gary and Sam - the most amazing team to be with in the world, the ones who had to put up with our singing as well as the sickness, and the ones who undoubtedly enabled us to be successful in our challenge - thank you so much to them, we would never have done it without you and are extremely grateful for everything you did!  We were then told to head to a local pub where all swimmers are allowed to sign the walls as proof of their swim.  Despite our exhaustion by this point we managed to find the pub and do just this which was an excellent way to end the day and celebrate what we had achieved.  

All in all it was one of the most surreal days any of us had ever had!  We had overcome so many hurdles during the last year, week and day and had managed to complete our own challenge.  We are all immensely proud of ourselves and each other for what we have achieved together and will certainly never forget any of the experience of it!

For all of the photos please see http://www.flickr.com/photos/challenge521 (and please bear in mind that we will each upload our photos, but that it may take a couple of days to do so!)

Thank - you's:

Firstly to Stuart (whose Sea Leopard blog can be found at http://www.sealeopardcharter.com/), Gary who helped out onboard the ship, and Sam our observer - all three helped us out in so many more ways than their official duties and made our swim not only successful but also unforgettable and for the most part enjoyable!

To Mark Evison http://www.markevisonfoundation.org/ - without whose support we may never have been able to fund and so undertake the swim.

To all of the local schools, clubs, newspapers, car boot sales, Tri2 swim lake and other organisations who supported us and helped to fund the swim - we were overwhelmed by how many people took and interest and helped us achieve our goal.

To all of our friends, acquaintances and family who also donated (http://www.justgiving.com/Challenge-521) and who no doubt heard us moaning at various points in the last 14 months about various things to do with the swim, and particularly in the last week when things were so uncertain at times.

And finally for all those reading this blog - which has received phenomenal interest particularly over the last week - and has been a recent key source of portraying information to you all!  

If anyone has any questions at all about the swim or would like to know further details about it please contact one of us, or email challenge521@hotmail.co.uk

Thank you again to everyone, 

Love from 5 very exhausted but very proud girls

Alice, Amy, Izzy, Josie and Poppy 

We have done it!

The five os us battled sea sickness, saltwater, tides and general fatigue to complete the swim in a very impressive and surprising 10 hours and 50 minutes!

We are all thrilled with the outcome and still can't quite believe it.  Having headed back from Kent we are all now on our way to long baths and a very early night.

A longer blog update with how the swim went will be available in the next few days.

Until the a massive thanks to our amazing pilot and crew onboard our boat and to all the support from family and friends over the last week.

We all feel like we have accomplished something truly amazing today and are very proud of our achievement.

For now goodnight, and we promise a longer update shortly!

ps Remember should you want to sponsor us you can at http://www.justgiving.com/Challenge-521

We are off!

So by some miracle we will be leaving for Dover at 11.45 to begin our swim! 

Poppy has now arrived with us, bacon sandwiches have been made and we have finalised all the packing.  If you would like to picture our current scene, we are sitting around the dining table with tea and biscuits and pondering when we need to put on our first swimming costumes!

The swim will actually begin between 12.30 and 1.30 am, and the order of swim should you want to know will be:
1. Alice
2. Amy
3. Poppy
4. Izzy
5. Josie

We are all very excited but nerves are definitely kicking in.  This isn't meant to sound like a disclaimer, but the swimming the Channel is no easy task, and while we have heard a multitude of different success rate figures it is by no means certain that we will complete the challenge ahead of us.  However, after the week we have had, the effort we have put in over the year and the amount of encouragement and support we have recieved from everyone, we are determined to give it our very best shot.  Team Challenge 5:21 are truly ready to go!

We are also determined to put on a good show for the excellent causes we are supporting, Cancer Research UK and the Mark Evison Foundation.

If you would like to sponsor us you can at http://www.justgiving.com/Challenge-521

We probably won't be in contact again with people until after the swim - we will try and update twitter occasionally but don't think that there will be much internet available mid Channel! - so until further news is available bon voyage!

Preparation

So far the weather has done as its told and we are still due to begin our swim between 12.30 and 1.30 am Saturday morning.

Having all now returned to Kent, bar Poppy who is due to arrive at around 10.20 pm, we have spent the day packing our kit and buying in supplies for the trip.

Packing is now complete with kit bags full of costumes, goggles, swimming hats, vaseline, suncream and the like!

Pasta is currently being cooked to take onboard tomorrow and we have the most enormous supply of biscuits, rolls, sweets, jelly anbd fruit to take.  We certainly won't be going hungry!

A few anonymous items have also made it into our bags including parts of a Captain Hook outfit, facepaint and large inflatable Union Jack hands just to cheer us up in those moments when we may get a bit down!

We are all a mixture of nerves and excitment at present and most of relief as it looks like we will get to attempt the swim altogether, something which none of us would have dreamed possible earlier in the week!

We will be in touch before we go....

Guess who's back????????

POPPY!!!!!

That's right, owing to the fact that the swim has been delayed this long Poppy is able to rejoin us!

As you can tell we are all so happy about this, the five of us will be back together gain for the swim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bring on the swim!

A Glimmer of Hope!

A more positive update this afternoon for you all!

Our pilot Stuart has been in touch to say that we should be able to swim in the early hours of Saturday morning, and we mean early at 12.30 am!  Obviously this is very exciting news for us all and we are heading back to Kent tomorrow morning to sort everything out and get a few hours sleep before we attempt the swim.  The change in the weather really has been the most incredible stroke of luck, and fingers crossed it does what the weather charts say it is going to do.  At present therefore we are very pleased to inform everyone that the 4 of us should be swimming on Saturday 1st September!

Amy and Josie went for a quick training session in a pool this morning to keep themselves ticking over, and Alice, who remained in Kent, went swimming in the sea again on Tuesday evening labelling it a very pleasant experience with 'positively balmy' water!  Amy and Josie compensated for swimming in what seemed like a try warm pool by showering in the cold shower afterwards!

Today all of us will be repacking our stuff and alternating eating lots of carbohydrates and sleeping!

Thank you to everyone for all your support over the last few days when we have all been feeling a bit low and frustrated with the situation, all the positive words and support we have received has made a difference.

We will keep you updated on any changes and post on here when we are actually leaving for the swim - until then it is fingers crossed all round!

A waiting game...

So we have all (apart from Alice) returned to Reading for a couple of days to wait for further news about when we can swim.

Fingers crossed that we swim on either Friday or Saturday.

Thank you for all the kind messages of support in the last 24 hours!  We will be trying everything possible to enable us to swim at the weekend.

Another Challenging Evening

Well we didn't call our adventure Challenge 5:21 for nothing!

This evening our pilot Stuart called to say that the weather will prohibit us from swimming the channel until at the very least Friday, if not Saturday/Sunday.  This is obviously very frustrating and upsetting but totally out of everyone's control.

This news does unfortunately pose several issues in terms of people being able to do the swim.  Moving in dates/ job start dates/ holidays are all creeping towards us all and so the timing of the swim is in the balance at the moment.

Fortunately we do still have several options available to us, although they are getting fewer and fewer and the time is getting tighter and tighter....

We are all still hoping that at least some of us will be able to attempt the swim, although it will be even tougher with fewer swimmers as they will be more swims and less of a break between each of them.

We are all keeping our fingers crossed and want everyone to know that we are doing everything in our power to be enable us to swim, unfortunately at the moment it is just all out of our control.

We are all heading back to Reading for a couple of days so as to have some space and relax from the stressful events of the last couple of days.

As ever we will keep you posted on news, and fingers crossed next time it will be more positive and with more definitive answers.

A great loss

Some very sad news this evening from us all in that we have to announce that Poppy is unable to swim with us in our Channel Swim attempt due to personal circumstances. She will be greatly missed by all of the rest of us and it is very disappointing for her not to be able to swim.  A great thanks must be given to Poppy to all her hard work towards the swim, in her fundraising, organisation and training capacities.  Her optimistic attitude and endless encouragement will be missed by all the rest of us both while we wait to swim and during the swim itself.  A thanks must also be given to Poppy for the goodies she left behind for the rest of us to use including Lucozade and Vaseline! Thank you for everything Poppy and we love you!

In other news today despite the glorious sunshine it was still too windy to swim.  We therefore headed down to Dover harbour again and trained for 1.5 hours in much nicer swimming conditions than yesterday! As well as witnessing a ferry turn 180 degrees while swimming in the harbour, we also encountered seal trainee sailors and windsurfers who were only too happy to chat to us when we popped our heads up to make sure that they weren't going to ride over us!

Vaseline has begun to be used and will be for the foreseeable future due to various necks and underarms is occurring - who said that this wouldn't be glamorous!? Furthermore sweets and/ or biscuits are also now a necessity for immediately after training!

After another run to the supermarket and some lunch we have all settled down again for the afternoon and evening feeling excited about the swim and sad about Poppy's departure.  It's mixed emotions this evening for us but if we manage to complete the swim it will all be worthwhile.

Until next time...

Training in Dover Harbour

After a good night sleep we headed down to Dover Harbour for a training session.

Clearly many British people were fleeing the dreadful weather, which has prohibited us from swimming today, and the queues into Dover and the ferry port were a couple of miles long unfortunately.  However we didn't let that or the weather dampen our spirits and arrived at the coast to see around 30 other people already in the water.

Apparently it was a quiet day as it was still fairly choppy in the harbour, but we were still shocked by how many people were there.

After some helpful hints from experienced trainers and pilots we walked into the sea, trying to look brave in the cold in and wind and yet still squeaking a fair amount!  We all successfully managed to stay in for an hour ploughing up and down the harbour, and were pleased with our group training session.

The waves were the biggest shock to our system, particularly when we have done a lot of our training in a lake.  For the most part though we were able to not swallow too much water and stay in a vaguely straight line.  Visibility wasn't great as was expected, so even if there are jellyfish looming we will be unable to see them, which weirdly made certain members of the group feel better.  The cold, providing you kept moving, was also surprisingly bearable, although admittedly we were less than 300 metres from the beach at all times.

All in all though, having now had showers, lunch, tea and biscuits, it has helped to calm many nerves about cold, stamina and jellyfish.  Again we are all currently feeling enthusiastic about the swim and hope that we will be off in the next few days.

As ever we will keep you posted.

Arrival in Kent

After meeting up together and cramming everything into a Ford KA and Peugeot 206 all 5 of us headed down to Kent and away from Reading and all the festivallers.  Despite heavy traffic we made it to our destination (just outside Folkstone) in 2.5 hours which included a McDonald's lunch break.  If ever we needed to pile on the pounds its would be now!

On arrival we unpacked and then headed down to Dover to meet with our pilot Stuart.  After being presented with a cup of tea onboard Sea Leapoard we chatted about the swim and had many of our questions answered.  Apparently it is pretty unlikely we will see jellyfish, are mostly likely to be swimming in darkness at some point, and we may encounter some seals! It is unlikely that we will swim over the weekend due to the weather but fingers crossed it will happen early next week!

Back at where we are staying, and after a Tesco trip, we whipped up spaghetti bolognese and then settled down to begin our Midsomer Murder marathon that is going to get us through the next few days!

Training in Dover Harbour in the morning, time to get seriously acclimatised!

Expect plenty of updates over the next few days...

Packing!

The day has finally come, we are leaving for Kent in a couple of hours!

Training has been in full swing in recent weeks, albeit on an individual basis as everyone has been away in recent weeks either with university, holidays, Olympic volunteering!  Training in various pools/ lakes/ and seas has occurred for all of us, and wetsuits have now well and truly become a thing of the past.  However, half of the team were able to meet up for a final training session last night at the lake while Josie crossed the channel via ferry - she spotted no other swimmers while onboard and no sharks either for that matter!

After a flurry of phone calls to each other last night all of us are now packed and have planned a meeting place which hopefully will avoid all the reading Festival traffic!

No idea when we are swimming, its weather and tide dependent, so there may be plenty of updates the next few days as we do some last minute acclimatisation/ training in the Channel itself.

Lets hope we can seize the Olympic spirit and do ourselves proud in the next week...

Planning!

While training and fundraising are still ongoing we have now got the planning stage for our imminent voyage across the Channel!

Certain products such as light sticks are requited according to official regulations and on top of this things such as 'grease' to stop rubbing and at least have a positive psychological effect on the temperature of the water, need to be purchased.

Research into these products is underway as well as the compilation of a long list of items to take - layers and chocolate being near the top!

We will keep you posted on our progress...

All steam ahead!

Lots of activity again recently.  Firstly fundraising news - we went to another car boot sale on Sunday 15th July and raised another £54 for the swim.  After an early start and several drives later we ended up at the Sonning Common Car Boot Sale - the A33 one having been closed due to the weather and slippery ground.  Fortunately The rain did miraculously hold off all day on the Sunday and we were able to get rid of a lot more stuff and raise a decent amount of money in the process.  A special thanks must go out to Jasmine Hicks who came along to help us at the car boot sale despite not being a member of the team as Amy and Josie needed an extra pair of hands, thank you Jasmine!

Sponsorship is still coming in and we are all extremely appreciative and overwhelmed by the amount of support being shown to us - thank you to everyone who has so generously donated so far.  If you still haven't donated and would like to you can donate directly to Cancer Research UK through our Just Giving page http://www.justgiving.com/Challenge-521  or alternatively email us at challenge521@hotmail.co.uk for details of where to send a cheque.

Training has also stepped up in recent weeks.  As all members of the team have now been to the lake it is much easier for us to all go as and when we can.  Wetsuits have now well and truly been abandoned and it has to be said that training last night was actually pleasant in terms of temperature and was a welcome method of cooling off after such a hot day!  Fingers crossed the weather remains this good or at last reappears for the week of the swim!

From now until the swim training is to become more intense, even for those of us on holiday.  The final stages of planning, for instance what to pack, are underway and it is very exciting that it is getting so near!  For now just keep swimming...

More training!

Despite it being the weekend 3 of us (Josie, Izzy and Poppy) went to outdoor training this morning and were in the lake for 8am!

Particular praise must be given to Poppy as it was not only her first time doing outdoor training, but she also braved the 17.6 degree Celsius lake in only a splash vest and drag shorts!  Her argument being here that she may as well skip the wetsuit stage and get used to the coldness from the beginning.

Furthermore, she managed to persuade Izzy to drop the wetsuit and do the same!  Poppy's encouragement did not work quite as well on Josie who remained in her wetsuit, but she has promised to ditch the wetsuit the next time she goes.

For those who may be unaware when we complete the swim in August we are only allowed to wear standard swimming costumes, with the option of greasing up as the only extra layer of potential warmth allowed.  With the English Channel in August being anywhere between 12 and 18 degrees Celsius in the summer ultimately all outdoor training should be completed without extra layers - so well done Izzy and Poppy.

It s also worth a mention that it was Josie's fourth outdoor training session in seven days today, which is  dedication to training, even if it was in a wetsuit.....

All of us are picking training back up on a more serious basis at present now that the exam period is truly over and will will keep you updated on our progress...

Updated Photos

The Flickr page has (albeit in a very late fashion) been updated with photos from our fundraising evening back April.  Enjoy them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/challenge521

Bake Sale

Yesterday The Abbey School (Josie and Alice's old school) allowed us to hold a bake sale at their annual Sports Day.  After a morning of preparation, collecting of doughnuts and baking we made our way to the sports ground where it was being held and set up our stall.

We are delighted to announce that we raised £200 for the Mark Evison Foundation throughout the day, which is a fantastic amount of money for a very worthwhile cause (http://www.markevisonfoundation.org/).  All the cakes and doughnuts went down extremely well, and not just with those of use who were selling them!

For Alice and Josie it was also lovely to be back at their old school, and particularly at an event such as Sports Day where they could once again cheer on their old houses and watch the infamous teacher's race with some familiar faces!

A huge thanks much be given to the staff at The Abbey for allowing us to hold a fundraiser and making us feel so welcome, as well as including us in the programme which explained how and what we were doing.  A further thanks needs to be given to the staff at the Palmer Park who were also very welcoming and helped us set up.

Another outdoor training session may be occurring this afternoon weather permitting.... If it does go ahead Izzy will be introduced to the lake!

First Open Water Training Session

On Sunday 17th June I (Josie) undertook her first open water training session at a lake just off the M4 in Berkshire.  Accompanied by a friend who has been training for the Great North Swim this coming weekend, I went down to the lake for 8am.  Upon arrival it was exciting and inspiring to see that there were around 40 other swimmers in the lake, I had no idea open water swimming was so popular!

After a wetsuit fitting (yes I know we are not allowed them for the Channel Swim but for this training I was) I apprehensively got into the water which was an apparently mild 16.6 degrees Celsius - not too far off what we are hoping the Channel will be by the last week of August when we swim.  After getting used to the temperature and spotting of the buoys while completing laps of the circuit I found the whole experience very refreshing and enjoyable.  I completed 2.25km in 42 minutes, which as a first outdoor swim is very encouraging as we hope to be averaging speeds of 3km/hr in the summer.  As well as practising in a different and more realistic environment the experience was also good to help acclimatise to the temperature and lack of visibility, as well as practising not swallowing too much water which could be disastrous in the sea in the summer!

I am off back there this evening for my second training session, and am hopeful that it will be as fruitful and entertaining as the first!  I will keep you posted...

Upcoming Events

Now that we are all beginning to finish for summer there are several events happening at the moment relating to both training and fundraising:
1. Open water training at lakes in Berkshire
2. Bake Sale at Abbey School Sports Day
3. Car Boot sales in late June/July

We have raised over our £1000 target on our JustGiving page which is absolutely incredible!  Thank you to everyone who has donated, we really appreciate it and it is all going to such a worth while cause.

If you haven't yet donated but want to the link is below:

http://www.justgiving.com/Challenge-521

We will update on further news/events as and when they happen!

Party Time!

A couple of weeks ago Alice held a fundraiser at a her Grandma's community centre. She had arranged a French-themed fair selling knitted items (hand-made by her family) as well as a tombola with donated prizes from various shops in Wokingham as well as residents. The event lasted all day and she managed to raise an incredible £1060! We'd like to thank everyone who donated items (especially the knitters!) and everyone that went along on the day, we really appreciate your support.

Last Thursday we continued our fundraising with a party at Revolution in Reading. They had kindly allowed us to use the space free of charge because it was a charity event and had even donated a 4 person cocktail masterclass for the tombola. All five of us managed to meet up beforehand and had a good catch up and even had time to talk about organising some outdoor training swims for the next few months in between all the girly gossiping! We were all feeling very nervous by this point, worrying that it was going to be a disaster and nobody was going to turn up. We tried to reassure each other but there was definitely a lot of anxiety about the forthcoming evening.

We put on our Mark Evison Foundation t-shirts and a brave smile and all headed out to Revs. After a slow start we peaked at around 40 guests and we all breathed a sigh of relief. It was an excellent night with lots of ridiculous dancing, mostly courtesy of Izzy! We hope everyone enjoyed the evening and we managed to raise an excellent £260.

We'd like to thank Thorntons, The Body Shop, Jamie Oliver's Italian, Pizza Hut, The Entertainer and Vue for their donations of tombola prizes, as well as Revs for giving us the venue, tombola prize and some generous drinks deals for the evening. A huge thank you also goes to everyone who came down and made the evening such a success.

We're all heading off to University again over the next couple of weeks and the training will start to step up a gear so wish us luck both in the water and out! Keep an eye out for updates on here/Twitter/Facebook and maybe even in more local newspapers :D

Back to School

On Monday 26th March Alice and myself (Josie) had the pleasure of returning to our old secondary school The Abbey, in Reading.  We were invited back to hold an assembly for the current students age 14-18 about why we were undergoing the swim itself and how we were going about doing it.

Niether Alice nor myself had been back to school since picking up our A Level results there in 2010 and 2009 respectively and neither or us really new what to expect.  Had the school changed much?  Would we recognise anyone?  Had assembly format been altered?

Fortunately we were received very warmly by the staff and students who patiently listened to our plans and what we have been up to so far, as well as what is going to happen in the near future.  It was lovely to be back in school again, which we can now safely say hasn't changed dramatically, and we still recognised a few staff members which was also lovely!  In fact the whole experience made us somewhat nostalgic of school life again, especially when we heard the school bell go!

Alice and I would like to thank all the staff and students for making us feel so welcome and for allowing us to come in and speak to them.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and hope to be back soon!

Lots of news on forthcoming events to come in the next few days so watch this space....

A Prestigous Invite

Last week we receieved an invitation to attend the Young Achiever's Trust awards ceremony. It was to take place on Monday 19th March at the Speakers House. This was the extent of the information we received and so armed with an overwhelming sense of intrigue and a variety of outfit choices, Amy and I (Poppy) made our way to the Houses of Parliament. We asked the friendly Policeman outside the gate where Portcullis House entrnace was and were directed away from the Houses of Parliament. Luckily we found a group of people stood outside what Amy described as "Tesco Express offices" and in true British style, we joined the queue! We were ushered in to a reception area where our bags were checked and we were subjected to airport style security. After receiving our security passes, we waited in the crowded atrium of an extremely large greenhouse. We were then ushered down staircases and through corridors until we emerged into the courtyard of the actual Houses of Parliament!

Amy and I were still bewildered and confused as to exactly why we were there and what on earth was happening but we smiled graciously as they gave us name tags and showed us into a very grand room. Not quite a champagne reception but the OJ and apple juice went down a treat! We were told to "make ourselves at home" in a set of rooms which would not have looked out of place in a period drama. We oohed and aahed at the magnificence of the suite and giggled at our incompetence to mingle with anyone other than each other!

There followed a few quick speeches, one of which was given by Sholto Moger, our mentor from the Mark Evison Foundation who helped us through our application. The awards ceremony was short but sweet and both Amy and I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the calibre of the young people who were receiving the prestigious awards. Once all of the awards had been given out, we managed to pluck up the courage to talk to Margaret Evison and her daughter Lizzie. Margaret then introduced us to Sholto and it was nice to finally be able to put a face to the name. We also met some of the previous recipients of Mark Evison Foundation awards and the chance to talk to them about their achievements and future plans was awe-inspiring!

As the dignitaries and award winners had left, Amy and I took our leave. After a false start on the tube we finally made our way to Paddington and eventually home again. We'd like to thank the Young Achievers' Trust and the Mark Evison Foundation for the wonderful opportunity and generous hospitality.

But after all this partying, it's sadly back to the training plan...

Just Giving Page now open!

After what has been a flurry of activity this week I am very pleased to announce that we have just launched our Just Giving Page.

http://www.justgiving.com/Challenge-521

Please give what you can - it is for a very worthwhile cause and the money donated via the link will go straight to the charity and will start benefitting millions of cancer sufferers throughout the UK.

All of this has been made possible this week by the very generous donation from the Mark Evison Foundation.  Due to the donation we are now able to focus entirely on raising money for charity so any donations given are very appreciated.

We will be back with more news when we have any... lots of things in the pipeline!

ps for anybody in Reading be sure to check out p.42 of the Reading Evening Post, or look at their website

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2108072_five_pals_take_on_channel_swim

Fantastic news!

Today we have made two huge leaps forward in our channel swim project. Firstly came the news that we had been included in The Reading Post with a very flattering article and slightly less flattering picture of us all! We are hoping this will help to generate some more interest in the challenge and may even lead to some more fundraising opportunities. Either way, it is excellent exposure for us and we really hope this is just the beginning of our publicity campaign - This Morning here we come!

We are also very pleased to announce that we have been awarded an extremely generous £2000 from the Mark Evison Foundation. Three of us made the trip down to Dulwich, South London last Friday for an interview just days after we'd put our application in. It was quite an informal process, though stressful nevertheless. We were asked all about the project, our motivations, evidence of our dedication to the challenge and also the practicalities of the swim itself. I think most of all we showed our overwhelming enthusiasm for the whole thing, from the planning, to the training and all the way to the completion of the challenge. They have given us some leaflets and posters to use whenever we talk about the project and we are hoping to receive some t-shirts to be worn at future events, so look out for lots of Mark Evison Foundation information coming your way in the next few months!

We have also been told by Izzy, our resident slave driver, that we all have to commence structured, specific land training. I think we've all said at some point that it's easy to forget about the actual swimming part of the project when you're all caught up in the fundraising, but I think it's going to be completely unavoidable
 from now on! I'm definitely not starting on the regular cold showers just yet though!

We'll keep you all updated on any more progress, thanks already to everyone who has supported us so far!

January Planning!

Lots of different emails and letters being sent out this week so we should have some news very soon about upcoming events!

In the mean time training has started again as we only have 7 months to go until the swim itself.  We all need to get our fitness going again, especially as a practise open water swim will be happening in the not too distant future, I get the feeling it will be a shock to all of our systems!

Anyway back to the planning for fundraising and we promise any exciting news as soon as we have any!

Happy New Year!

Apologies it has been far too long since the last update - hopefully with the new year my resolution to update this more will survive!

Huge day of planning fundraising activities today - trying new contacts and bigger events.  I will keep you posted with details of upcoming events on here as and when they happen.

Training is starting again shortly, I may regret all that turkey now!

Update again soon...