Saturday 18th June 2016

 

This was a very strange feeling…. seeing a blown up version of the DCLT poster for the first time! Haha!  Thank you to Adam McCartney at Heatherbank Print in Doncaster, and for Carl Lewis who looks after DCLT Marketing for sponsoring this.

The more I experience new stuff like this, the more I am in awe of the amount of support I am receiving for this Challenge.

 

A special thank you to ALL who were involved in the Bag Pack for The Hearing Fund UK at Tesco Extra yesterday. There was a moment when I paused to watch my helpers happily chatting to customers whilst they packed their bags and I had such a feeling of appreciation come over me for what they had been willing to do with just four days notice.

On Monday when I accepted the last minute opportunity from Tesco, I had no idea how it could be done, but with such kind hearted family and friends, we were able to raise a massive £472.14!!  It had taken just one day to raise almost as much as it had taken us over two days at the small Morrisons in Armthorpe! Another miracle.  The new roll up banner was used to draw attention to my Swimming Challenge, and I had some great conversations with people about what I’m doing, and how the deaf children will benefit from the money raised for The Hearing Fund.

 

The Tesco Extra Bag Pack has taken the total so far past the £3,000 mark !!!

 

 

 

I was so so tired this morning when I woke up, after being on my feet at Tesco yesterday for 8 hours straight, that I decided to miss my early morning swim at Armthorpe.  I had the chance to promote a Swim with Me group swim for DCLT staff on 8th July.  It was at Edlington Leisure Centre this afternoon, where they were having a staff training meeting.  As they had some life saving training in the water, I took the chance to swim just short of a mile with them, to bring my total to 216 miles.  It was good to return to their pool because it brought back some great memories from about 20 years ago when I was the Education Swimming Instructor there. A funny memory, that was potentially dangerous, was when I wore flippers in that pool for the very first time.  I had been told to swim on my back with these flippers on, so I could feel the difference in travelling through the water. Off I went from the shallow end thinking how amazing that such little movement in my leg kick could help me swim so powerfully. What I hadn’t realised was how fast I was moving, and as I was on my back I couldn’t see how quickly the deep end wall was approaching. You can imagine my shock when I ploughed into the wall, head first and backwards, when I hadn’t expected to be that far that quickly!! I really did hurt myself, but thankfully there was no serious damage!  Lesson learned: Be much more careful when swimming with flippers on! 😀

The 25m pool at Edlington Leisure Centre