About Me

Im Sophie, a fully qualified STA Level 2 Open Water Coach and Mental Health Swim Host based in Cambridgeshire.

I learnt to swim at a very young age and growing up in Hastings, East Sussex by the sea I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to swim in the sea whenever I wanted. However, it wasn’t until I was 12 and I joined the Hastings Voluntary Lifeguarding Club that I was introduced to the wonders of open water swimming. I quickly fell in love with the sea and swimming outdoors and spent every summer from then onwards at the beach and in the sea. I somehow soon found myself training for triathlons and a cross channel relay team!

I kept swimming through college and even managed to find a lake to swim in when I went to University. However, at the start of my 2^nd year of University I was involved in a cycling accident and knocked off my bike by a car. I got away lightly and with very few injuries but as a result of the injuries I developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome or CRPS. This is a neurological chronic pain condition and it completely changed my life. I stopped swimming.

Swimming became painful to me, part of CRPS is that it causes extreme sensitivity meaning that anything touching my legs is painful. I couldn’t wear trousers because the material hurt my legs, I couldn’t be out in the wind because it hurt, even the water from having a shower was painful. I thought, and feared that I would never swim again.

As a result of my injury I am now reliant on mobility aids, predominately a wheelchair but I can also walk short distances with crutches and even shorter distances unaided. Although this sometimes causes difficulties, it has given me a different perspective of the world and means that I am open to and able to easily adapt my coaching to each individual. I am used to finding unconventional ways to do things and willing to try and help anyone with any of their goals, be it a specific event or just to improve your Open Water Swimming technique so that you can enjoy swimming outdoors even more!