When I was a kid, my dad taught me to love the water by taking me swimming at Bath Leisure Centre every weekend. He loved swimming and running, and would regularly run half marathons to raise money for charity.

Then, two years ago, I lost my dad to bowel cancer.

In his last months our family was massively supported by our local cancer charity, Dorothy House Hospice. They enabled dad to get out of hospital and spend a few weeks at home, supported by visiting nurses, before moving to their hospice to spend the last few days of his life is as much comfort as could be hoped for.

Unfortunately this year thanks to the cost of living crisis, Dorothy House is undergoing serious financial difficulties. While able to maintain operations for now, they have had to massively eat into their reserves and may need to lay off staff. This is threatening the provision of care to thousands of local cancer patients and their families.

So, in honour of my dad's legacy of running half marathons, and the time we shared at the pool, I'm going to be swimming a half marathon.

844 lengths of Bath Leisure Centre's pool.

Half the funds raised will go towards Cancer Research UK, to prevent other families from going through the same experience that we endured. The other half will help keep Dorothy House Hospice and their extraordinary care in the community operational, to ensure that families who do suffer the same experience can do so with the same support.

***

I've been training for this since my dad passed away, and intensely since the start of the year. Based on my pace in training so far (going up to a 15km swim) I anticipate this will take about 8 hours of continuous swimming (minus breaks to take on energy gels and fluids). This is going to be the biggest physical challenge of my life and I already know it is going to be extremely painful by the end.

Any donations, no matter how small, to make my pain worthwhile would be extremely appreciated.

Photo credit: Thomas Rintoul.