What motivated a 15-year-old to swim the Channel?
I had always excelled at swimming – the longer the distance and the colder the water. I swam across Windermere when I was 12 and I swam the length of Windermere and got a junior record when I was 14. So the ultimate was the Channel – so I just went to my mum and said “I want to swim the Channel.” She gulped but her and my dad were very supportive throughout my whole swimming career.