Hi there,

If you don't already know me....I am Abigail...and I am about to swim the length of England's longest lake. Lake Windermere. Along side my good friend Kayley and my wonderful sister Laura. Between us, we will each swim the lake..11 miles each, tallying a grand total of 33miles between us! Madness, Right?! And raise some money whilst we do it.

Why would we do this.... I hear you ask?!

Well...for our friend Greg. It's that simple.

A little over a year ago, my good childhood friend Greg was busy training to swim the channel as part of a relay team. At this point in my life, I hadn't been swimming since I was a kid, way back when I used to swim competitively. Greg had been trying to get me back into swimming at the local club for quite some time, with me reluctantly making excuses.

Until....

Greg took a bike ride over the local common...and his life changed forever.

Good Friday 2021, a day none of us will ever forget... the day my heart broke for my friend.

Greg had come off his bike, broken his neck and suffered several spinal cord injuries.

Leaving him paralysed from the armpits down. This is for life.

Feeling completely helpless, all my family and I could do was send weekly videos of support and encouragement to our buddy Greg. We weren't allowed to see Greg for quite some time due to the seriousness of his accident.....So whilst he fought through the most challenging moments of his life, we all just sat with heavy hearts waiting to hear news. In these weeks of feeling like I wasn't helping enough...I made the rash decision that I would take Greg's place in the swim across the channel and complete his part for him. But alas, the swim team didn't actually know me; they didn't know I could swim and they didn't need me.

Sooooo my second rash decision was.... I will do it alone...then my sister opted in and after a brief sea swim...we both took another moment, thought about the jellyfish, the boats, the choppy waters, and decided the Channel wasn't for us. And that Greg would be ok with us wimping out.

Wimping out... No....we just couldn't. There's my friend fighting to regain his speech, learning to come to terms with the fact his body was no longer the body he had once had, that he could no longer feel things...independently do things....and taking it all in his stride, showing us all such strength and determination...I knew we couldn't wimp out.

A quick google and boom...we found the WOW swim...Windermere One Way. August 13th 2022. Sign us up. No Jellyfish...or potential sharks that would have definitely got us in the channel right?! Ha.. we were sold. We signed up as soon as we could, with our lifelong friend Kayley joining the swim team too!

Training began...and we only have a few weeks left to go....

I'll be honest.... Lake Windermere will be the longest we have ever swam in our life; it will also be our first open water swim event...So we really don't know what we are taking on other than we know we want to raise some money to go to Greg, to help at least with something, we don't know how much we will raise, we don't know what Greg will use it for, but we do know that the cost of living and staying alive for Greg isn't what it used to be. With constant round-the-clock care needed, a custom-built home underway with all the mod cons needed to make life a little easier, Greg is facing a future of uncertainty and costs. Costs that no young man should ever have to plan into his future. Greg is in our eyes the most deserving person and friend that will make great use of whatever it is we can raise for him.

We will be forever grateful for any pennies or pounds you feel you can donate, and we promise to swim as hard as we can.

It's all for you Greg.

A huge heartfelt thank you to any donations we receive.

Love Abigail, Laura and Kayley

x