The madness of the past few months has meant blogs haven’t been written because I’ve been so busy.
So much has happened that I’m not even sure where I should start! Maybe all the way back in October at the STA Conference.
STA Conference
What a totally different experience I had this year! Last year, no one really knew me or spoke to me and I kind of kept myself to myself, this year in contrast; everyone knew me and even if I had wanted to, I couldn’t keep myself to myself! The journey to get there went well, the hotel facilities were the same as last year too. On Friday we attended several talks and in the evening went to the awards night where I was awarded with the STAr Member of the year and nearly tipped out of my wheelchair (thanks Mike).
The Saturday started with myself and my crew being together properly for the first time since my swim and giving a talk and chatting about my channel swim.
Later in the day I gave my talk on accessibility in open water swimming, sadly it was poorly attended but it was still worthwhile and it meant I could tailor the talk to the few individuals in the room. I had some great chances to network and learn new things and of course we had time to catch up with friends too.
Swim Tayka Charity Gala
The next exciting thing that I’ve done in the past few months was attending the Swim Tayka charity gala in Poole. A very long journey but we got to stay in the RNLI College which was pretty cool. We didn’t get much chance to explore Poole but did go along the harbour front and randomly bumped into a samba band and Santa!
The actual charity gala was a totally new experience for me. My sister wasn’t known as Laura, she was “Sophie sister”, which made her giggle. We were sat at the ‘top table’ with the Deputy Mayor of Poole and the organisers and founders of Swim Tayaka. The evening was spilt up between a meal and people receiving their relay channel swim certificates. Including Camilla getting her certificate for her channel relay, which was lovely to see.
Unfortunately, everything took longer than intended and it was soon 10pm! The Deputy Mayor gave a rather ‘interesting’ talk and to be honest I’m not sure he knew why he was there as he knew nothing about swimming or, it seemed, the charity. I won’t lie, it made me feel pretty good and ready for my 20min talk because if he could keep people engaged and get a clap at the end when he didn’t know what he was talking about then I knew I’d get one too!
It was getting on for 10.45pm by the time I started speaking. The layout of the room didn’t really work very well for me and as a result I ended up talking from where I had sat to eat dinner; a bit odd but it worked and meant I could see my presentation on the screen. One thing I didn’t particularly like was that I didn’t have control over changing my slides.
It was my first solo, in person talk about my channel swim and I was nervous but have now learnt a few techniques to help me, one of which is wearing my channel swim necklace which is a cast of the shell I picked up when I landed in Calais.
The talk went really well and had a really positive response but sadly by this point it was around 11pm so there wasn’t really time for many questions. After my talk there was a bit of music and people did come and ask questions, talk to me and even ask me for advice but I was so tired by that point I doubt I was making much sense.
The next morning we all arranged and planned to go for a sea swim together which, I had been reassured was accessible. Camilla and I drove to the swim spot and once out the car I took one look at the beach and knew I wouldn’t be swimming. The walk to the sea was simply too far for me, however the most annoying thing was that there was a concrete ramp all the way down to the water but it had piles of sand on it so I couldn’t get down it – incredibly disappointing, especially as I had been told it would be accessible to me.
CRPS UK Online Talk
The next exciting thing I did was an online talk for CRPS UK. Suffering with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is tough and it’s easy to lose hope that things will ever get better – I have personal experience of it myself. I was pleased and proud to be asked to give a talk for CRPS UK Awareness month. I hope that I was able to show people with the condition that it’s possible to get out of the dark times and that you can live an active, purposeful, and wonderful life despite living with one of the highest ranked pains chronic pain conditions in the world.
Amongst all the above I have had endless interviews both recorded and written, some Q&A sessions, recorded multiple podcasts and I have also been in touch with the World Open Water Swimming Association and the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame and am looking forwards to working with them in the new year!
There are so many amazing things that are already planned and in progress for 2024 both personally and also in terms of Adaptive and Disabled open Water Swimmers and I can’t wait to see what life has got in store for me because 2023 has been incredibly unexpected and incredibly amazing!
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Click Below to read and hear some of the interviews and articles I have done since my channel swim.
