No. This will explain. my daughter is mad but I love her to bits.

Mavis and I swim the channel

OK, so this is a short piece about 'The madcap plan' as my mother refers to it. She then adds that I'm not her daughter but the milk mans! I am going to swim the channel. In September of this year. Why? I hear you ask. Well, for several reasons really. One of the most important being, I want to see if I can. Equally as important is that in September 2006 I acquired a brand new stoma, name of Mavis, which meant that I was finally free of the colitis and had my life back. There were, and still are occasionally, adjustment issues to this new state of affairs and those issues, traumas and crisis were ably handled with the unstinting support of the IA and its members. So I wanted to give something back to the IA and swimming the channel seemed a good way to do it. I also want to show others in my position that having a stoma can be the start of something new. If I can swim the channel then they can get in the pool and swim.

I'm not the fastest swimmer and I'm not trying to break any records so I'm expecting to be in the water for about 20 hours. I'm swimming from Shakespeare beach in Dover to Cap Gris-Nez in France. I'm also useless at crawl so I'm swimming breast stroke. My training schedule consists of a mixture of pool swimming, running, cycling and sea swimming, with one day off each week. I belly dance on my day off (and frequently on my training days as well) and do yoga, which helps my breathing. The most difficult thing is proving to be finding someone to walk the shore with me while I train in the sea. Luckily I have a very supportive family watch me train as often as they can. My Mum in particular has spent many hours on the beach at Highcliffe keeping an eye on me and babysitting my son at the same time. Her house is now full of shells and interesting bits of driftwood as a result.

I love being in the sea, and always have. I cope with all those long boring hours spent swimming up and down the pool by knowing that each stroke gets me one 'step' closer to France. And hopefully my swim can give someone else the hope that they can have a normal life with their new stomas. If you would like to sponsor me please go to www.justgiving.com/jenniferbest.

P.S. I know there are ships that cross the channel but this way has to be more fun!!!
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