Why Swim the English Channel?
As head of marketing and communications for Earthwatch, an international environmental charity, I am all too aware of the increasing threat of climate change and pollution to the world’s oceans. The Channel alone is home to a billion pieces of floating plastic. And while this time next year I may secretly curse the fact the water isn’t a couple of degrees warmer, rising sea temperatures are having a devastating impact on the huge diversity of life in our seas. Channel swimming isn’t compared to climbing Mount Everest for nothing: Fewer people have successfully swum from Dover to France than have climbed the Tibetan giant. Amongst this elite club of just 1000 members, swimming the Channel is often described as being 10 percent physical and 90 percent mental. And I really wish this were true, because then I could just book one session with Dr. Phil, rather than doing endless lengths in the pool for a whole year. Of course what it’s actually getting at is the cold, because it doesn’t matt
