Emma & Sarah's Great London Swim for Silas

If you're following us on Facebook or Twitter, you may have seen this friendly face pop up on Sunday. This is Emma, she works for us here at Simply Swim, writing lovely product descriptions so you can make an informed decision when you visit the website. Emma has been with us for a few months now but it's only recently she's been able to walk, let alone swim. When she first arrived at Simply Swim, Emma was recovering from a pretty nasty leg break which has kept her in a cast for a long time. Keen to become active again now that the cast has come off, she's decided to take up swimming again, which is a great way to regain fitness when recovering from an injury such as this. This isn't the only reason however. Just after Christmas friend's of Emma lost their 11 year old son Silas, aged 11, to a major brain tumour. So Emma, along with her friend Sarah, want to raise as much money as possible for The Brain Tumour Charity, in the hope that one day other families won't be devastated by such an awful disease. In order to do this, they've decided to train for and tackle The Great London Swim, choosing a distance which is a mile long in London Docklands to take place on Saturday the 30th August. So far they've raised over £1,400! Having never swam in open water before, this is quite a daunting challenge for the girls, as it is for many pool swimmers. But it's one they are determined to complete. Emma has been swimming in the mornings before coming into Simply Swim HQ at our local pool in Faversham, to build up her strength and get fit for the challenge. She's been blogging about her swims as well which you can read by clicking here. This weekend however, her and Sarah finally took the plunge and swam on open water for the first time! Armed with wetsuits kindly donated by our new Triathlon brand Blueseventy, they headed to Holborough Lakes in Snodland for a open water induction under the watchful eye of Nemes Diving & Watersports Academy, who offer supervised inductions to the lake, where you will be guided by member of the academy in a rescue boat as you make your way around the lake, so that you have the confidence to tackle the lake on your own the next time you visit. Here are some photographs from their first taste of open water swimming! If you have any tips for the girls, please leave them in the comments below. If you'd like to support the girls' cause then visit their Just Giving page.