Swimming the channel

Swimming the 22 miles across the English Channel is no easy task for anyone, but that's what my colleagues at work had set out to do for charity. Fortunately, they'd decided to do it as a relay, rather than one long swim and in Bolton too. Makes sense really.

Everyone who wanted to take part put a bid down for how many lengths they would complete. Some would swam just a few but there were a couple in the team who'd committed themselves to 200 lengths each, which is just over 3 miles. Nutters!

Carole and I were just back from holiday, and we'd volunteered to work on the support team, who would count the lengths completed, make sure the right people were in the water at the right time, and keep the all important scoreboard up to date.

I got the job of counting the 200 lengths Howard and Gary were swimming, which in truth got a little repetitive after a while. Even so, you've got to admire what they achieved as they both swam for two hours non-stop - a great effort.

Everyone else played their part too, so much so that we comfortably exceeded the 1400 total we required to complete the 'channel crossing' and raised over £3,000 for Cancer Research, a fabulous effort all round.

Next time I'll commit to doing the swim too, so watch this space...