An Overview

So now it's been 18 months since I finished my swim and I thought I'd do a bit of an overview of the blog, as I made over a hundred entries and I don't expect anyone to read them all!

I am Alex

I swam the length of the Great Ouse river, which is 230.15km, over 112 days.

I picked this distance because

1. It's the longest river in East Anglia, which is where I call home.
2. My physiology textbook says that there are 230 joints in the human body (though I have since discovered that there is some debate about this) and Arthrogryposis is a condition which affects the joints.

I did my swim for The Arthrogryposis Group.
This is a clip from Radio 4 about TAG and Arthrogryposis.

I set out to raise 10p a length- £920.60. I surpassed this, and also beat target number 2- £1250, and 3- £1500. My final total was £1703.15 (or over £1800, including GiftAid.


I was featured in the local press

And I came runner-up in a JustGiving video competition with this beaut of a video, which I can’t take any credit for- I just did what I was told by my director, Ursula.


Ursula also:

Interviewed me about the swim


Made a long version of the Bombers video


And, with Hugh, made a support video for me


I received sponsorship from a million-and-one sources, the majority of whom I’ve attempted to thank in the sidebar. The list is too long for me to reproduce here, however it included friends, family, people who swam beside me in the pool, as well as local companies including British Sugar, Denny Bros and Cecil and Larter.

And that’s about it. I still spend half my life at the swimming pool, but most of the time I’m lifeguarding on the side rather than in the pool itself. I’m due to graduate in July with a BSc Hons in Human Biology and Law (yes, it’s a bit of a unique one!) and I’m hoping to be involved in some kind of medical or genetic research in the real world, but who knows where I will end up.
Unfortunately Hugh and I are no longer together, but these things happen and we had fun while it lasted .

So thank you again to everyone who supported me in whatever fashion. I couldn’t have done it by myself!

I got another donation!

I got a call from my sister Caroline the other day. I was asleep so I found it very confusing.

"Someone gave Carl at work £5 for your swim. He's given it to me to give to you, but I don't know who it was who gave it to Carl. I've also forgotten if Carl could remember who gave it to him in the first place. Whatever. Even if he did remember, I've forgotten. Basically, I've got a donation here for you from someone"

(She wants to be a doctor. I fear the future of the NHS!)

Anyway, after some investigative work (I tweeted Carl), it turns out the anonymous donor was, in fact, another gentleman who I used to swim with in the evenings. I'm afraid I don't know his name, but I'd like to thank him very much for the donation!!


(I didn't mean it Carli. I'm sure you'll be a wonderful doctor. Love you really xxx)

You're not getting rid of me!

I got an update from British Sugar today. You might remember that they promised to sponsor me earlier in the summer, but couldn't let me know the date until Autumn time. Well yesterday I got a letter from them saying that they will sponsor me £100, which is really fantastic!

So I've now raised almost £1800, including Gift Aid. It's phenomenal!

Thank you to them :-)

This weekend I was also back into the pool to compete for the first time in years and years for the BUCS swimming championships at the national pool in Sheffield. It was wonderful fun but I'm exhausted now!

Is it too early to go to bed?

Fundraising update

Today I was working in the library (which makes me sound very studious, but really I've been putting off the work due in tomorrow for two weeks.) and I receive an email from justgiving. Thinking that it's probably just spam, or something that was caught up in the Internet somewhere, so was sent during the swim but has only just arrived (can that happen??), I wasn't too excited. I then notice it's a donation from a name that I didn't recognise, so it must be a new one (but at this point I was so bored of contract law that even if it was spam it would have excited me a bit).
It was a donation from Mark Ransom, who'd swum with me a few times. Then I recognised the name!!

So thank you to Mark. I've now raised £1,571.95. I anticipate that this will be the last blog post, but this is now the third post that I've thought that.

Thank you everyone :-)

I got a letter

Thank you again to everyone who has supported me, and thank you to Jacqui for this lovely letter :-)

I'm in the Bury Free Press!! (Again)

:-)

Finished

So yesterday I did my last half mile and what a lot of surprises there were!! Firstly there was a special lane for me and the people who came to swim with me (Jordy, Tim, Carli and George). Then there was a photographer from the bury free press, and then I had a surprise party with all of my friends.

Thank you to everyone who came along (mum, dad, Carli, Hugh, granma, grandad, ursula, polly, Steve, diana, kian, Christian, Joe, Hannah, carl, Josh, Lewis, aiden, Hannah, Jordan, Hazel, Veronica, Jackie, alice, chris, Tim, tim, Tom, Chloe, George, Alison, Lloyd, Rui, jess, Katie, paul, Molly, George, Oscar. I think that's everyone but I was very overwhelmed by everything so sorry if I missed you out.

Ursula and Hugh organised it all so thank you so much to them.

They also made me a video



Thank you :-)

I also worked out yesterday how much I've raised (drum roll please)


£1561.95!!!!

So thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, supported me, kept secrets from me etc.)

I shall not blog as often now. I've still got a few more promises of sponsorship so I'll blog when I get that and will let you know a grand total then.

And thank you to my ruthy who sponsored me yesterday :-)

Day 111

152 today. That means I have 32 more to do and I'd really appreciate it if you came to watch me. It'll be at the leisure centre at 4.30 and I'll only take about 15 mins.

Thank you to Linda for sponsoring me today :-)

9174 down, 32 to go.

Day 110

I've been told to change my plans. Swimming on Friday will actually be at 4.30 rather than at 4.

My grandparents sponsored me some more, as did Megan, so thank you to them :-) I've now only got £74.75 more to raise to reach my third target of £1500.

I've done lots of swimming over the last few days and I've so nearly finished!! I passed 9000 lengths today.

9022 down, 184 to go.

Day 105

So I have 1 week to go before this is all over. I did 150 this morning and 110 yesterday. I've got less than 1000 lengths to go :-) Thank you to Megan for sponsoring me yesterday. 8402 down, 804 to go