JACK BROWN

I am delighted to be able to report that little Jack Brown has returned home from America where he has been battling Neuroblastoma. He has at last been declared NED ..(no evidence of disease), I received an email from his mum Yvonne today, his parents and friends are quite obviously elated at the news, as are we, long may his recovery continue.

You can read more on the updates on Jacks website

Life goes on

Life is slowly returning to normal on the work and parenting front. I feel like there is a huge void waiting to be filled, after all the training and planning I am at a loss as to what to do next. Don't misunderstand me I do have a thousand mundane tasks to be fulfilled in and around home, but on the swim front it all seems kind of weird.

I am thinking about doing the 10.5 mile Lake Windermere swim before the end of the season, though it is just a thought at this stage, maybe Zurich next summer ?, providing I could take Charlie with me. However even if I do those swims I know that the Channel will still be eating away at me from within.

We have already discussed the implications and what could done slightly differently by way of training, time off work and child care. Not a lot of changes but sufficient that would probably postpone a return to Dover next year unless of course we win the Lotto!

I certainly am not alone in my disappointments of being thwarted by the weather and the lousy British summer; Stanley Paris who hoped to become the oldest Channel swimmer at 70 years of age has also returned home to the United States, as has a training friend of his, a lady from India whose name I do not know. At least I didn't have a flight to catch, my journey home being simple enough in comparison.

Alison Streeter MBE said "it is the worst summer for Channel Swimming" she has known in 28 years of involvement.

I have received a great deal of backing from people who have confirmed the last year was not in vain, we managed to raise some funds for and perhaps more importantly some awareness regarding the plight of the many children fighting Neuroblastoma and of course The JACK foundation. With that I am happy. Its a pity I cannot go around claiming the funds for the charity from the paper pledges, that would boost their figures by another thousand pounds or so.

Fingers crossed for Enda Kennedy who will make his attempt in 10 days time on the final neap tide of the season.

Updates will continue re future plans, thankyou again for your support.

August has arrived

Not a lot has happened this week, the times I haven’t been working I have had some fun with Charlie during his school holidays, we have been to the cinema, played a stack of football and attended an awards ceremony at work, where as a result of the press coverage for an unconnected matter we had our pictures published in a local rag and managed to get The Swim and The Jack Foundation a mention.

Training wise I have had an easy week kind of forced upon me by other commitments, but at least it allowed my body to recover, to be honest I felt physically better after the 7 and 6 hours swims than after 3 or 4 hours? Maybe it was the sunshine at the weekend that lifted our spirits and made it all seem a little easier. I am glad to say the sunburn on my legs has calmed down…lesson learnt there.

Went to Seaton today about 5pm for an hour, was easy enough but boring being alone with no real route to swim, the tide was very high and the temperature on my watch said 58F, somewhat cooler than Dover Harbour. Sandettie Lightship shows the temperature mid channel hitting 64F. I am hoping to get a longer swim tomorrow after work again, weather permitting, as we have had almost constant rain and some wind for days now.

I have formulated my equipment and packing lists for the boat, as well as a number of questions I want to run by Andy King before I leave home on Friday. The plan is for me to be in Dover Friday afternoon, where I will await the go ahead of the swimmer in first slot. KGB and subsequently Dave Neal will then follow me down ready for the big day.

More news in a day or so regarding my feelings, needs, and fears. Thank you again for all those who continue to support the swim and the Charity, please spread the word and help me in the fight against Nueroblastoma.

Alone at Sea(ton)

Awoke to a sunny day for once, after another night of rainfall, dropped Charlie at school and made my way to Sunny Seaton, (well it was sunny when I left the house) on arrival the wind was blowing again, it was a westerly, which providing it ain't gale force tends to flatten the sea. So conditions were quite good really, just a bit of chop, high water and sunny intervals.

I was alone today as KGB was at work, and Joni has gone to Dover. I needed to get in for another sea swim and being that the conditions were favourable I decided to it was safe to do so. One of the worst things of going to the coast alone is the dilemna of time and equipment. Do I take the dry bag and clothes onto the beach so I am clothed til the last minute and risk it being stolen or blown away or, do I walk almost naked from the car park several hundred metres to the waters edge. I decided just like Monday that I would risk being arrested and walk semi naked across the sand.

Now once I make the decision to leave my clothes, towel and drinks etc in the car I then have to somehow secure the key for the ignition within my trunks. I normally tie it to the waist cord and hope for the best, there is no pocket inside the swimming togs so it's kind of just has to dangle in there, now that may sound OK to you...however as a result of the cold water I kind of lose the feeling of anything inside there so I never really know if I still have the key or if it has gone to Davey Jones' locker! am sure you can imagine my thoughts of exiting the sea only to have no dry kit and be faced with a ten mile walk home almost butt naked!! Not a pleasant prospect.

Into the water... my initial reaction was one of 'brrrr that's cold!' my hands and torso certainly felt the drop in comparison to the lake on Tuesday evening, after about 5 minutes I had relaxed into my swim and my breathing was fine. I swam a slightly longer route than normal, more or less keeping parallel to the shore, I did not want to head out too far without my safety cover and was rarely more than 200 metres from dry land.

Even though I obviously cannot speak with Kelly when she trudges the sand, it is comforting to know she is there, I found it boring today without her (yes Freda I know it it supposed to be boring). But for the occasional visit from a seagull I was in total isolation. Good training I guess. I swam for an hour at a watch reading of 55F, this is almost 10F lower than the lake, so I am really pleased that I made the effort to go today, we (KGB and I) are planning on returning tomorrow for a little longer.

Other news...work are trying to get some TV coverage for the swim so as to raise the profile of the J-A-C-K foundation and the fight against Neuroblastoma, thank you to all who continue to support the swim, be it financially, emotionally or by sacrificing your time. Without you I could not manage this.

Another week gone..7 to go

Just a brief diary type entry...this week has been rather full of everything but swimming, on Doctors advice Charlie has remained away from school this week for the protection of his arm. Therefore training has kind of taken a back seat, not such a bad thing after almost eight hours at the weekend, though now I am chomping at the bit to get back into the water.

Monday and Tuesday I was working days followed by child care, Wednesday I had another physio session with Gary Hinchely at Norton and Thursday I had the briefest of swims at Seaton Carew just to take part in a work related press release /photo shoot for the local media regarding the swim, my employers have been completely supportive hence I could not deny them the opportunity for some positive press, in addition to raising the profile of J-A-C-K.
For what its worth the sea yesterday was pan flat, the sun was shining but the wind was strong, the water was around 58F on my watch, for all it was brief, its is still good to get some cold water on the skin. I am hoping to get a longer swim either Sunday or early next week. Earlier this week I wrote a post to the Channel Swimmers Email Group regarding a swimming Lake Windermere sometime in the next fortnight but there seems to be little interest, so I guess its Seaton from now on prior to the three weekends at Dover, where I know Freda will ask for 7/6 hour swims on each occasion.

14 weeks out.....update

With 14 weeks remaining…activities are certainly picking up, Dover training commences this weekend where swimmers will gather to train every weekend before their expectant dates to tackle the Channel, I am slightly jealous that we live 340 miles from Dover, the distance and work commitments (I work shifts and have limited holidays) all mean that my trips to train under the guidance of Freda Steeter will be restricted to five weekends during June and July.

That said…I am still training hard, my twelve consecutive days of work did effect my training figures, this week so far in addition to pool work, I have had two swims at Bishopton Lake, once for an hour alone (Tuesday) and once (yesterday) with Joni Storer for 65 minutes, both swims were at 55F, warmer than the current sea and the Channel temperature, but good training all the same. It was Joni’s first visit to the idyllic lake which seemed to meet with his full approval. Though I must say his directional skills have not improved despite recently swimming for 6 hours in Malta! with Swim Trek.

Health wise all appears to be well except for some lower back pain, shoulders seem to be fine and thankfully I escaped the flu and stomach bug that was doing the rounds recently.

I mentioned some envy regarding missing the early Dover training sessions, however there is again a silver lining, on Bank Holiday Monday sensitive family issues permitting (which I cannot go into on the blog) KGB and I are going across to Ambleside for the an overnight stay, where we will have some time together and some swimming/kayaking in Lake Windermere similar to when we trained there last year with my support swimmer Loraine Verghese.

Speaking of Loraine, I sent her Channel Swim DVD to three other 2008 aspirants, Kaise Stefan in Australia, Megan Turner in Swansea and Chris Pountney in Whitstable.

Megan said: “Anyway, Mark was kind enough to send me a copy of a DVD made of Loraine Verghese swimming the channel. This DVD was fantastic to watch it showed the excitement, tension and (though this element was somewhat understated) it also showed how difficult it can be swimming into France against the tide. Loraine’s story is exciting and inspirational and it really made me think about what it will really feel like…. I have a feeling that I will be watching this DVD quite a few times over the next few months!”



Finally I am delighted to have been made aware that the J-A-C-K website is now live, thank you once again to all who have donated, (especially Mr Sean Price..(more details to follow) who have spread the word and have encouraged others to support me in The Fight against Neuroblastoma.And Chris said “I just saw the DVD of Lorraine's swim last year and it looks like you have got yourself a fantastic team there! Lorraine's swim was very impressive, you probably couldn't ask for a better support swimmer. And a very good and encouraging pilot. I think your gonna be just fine!

More important things.

I was checking the updates on little Jack Brown this afternoon, I thought I would paste in some of Yvonne Browns statement that she posted on 15th April, here it is:

"Friday saw the end of a week of chemotherapy. Jack tolerated it less easily than he has in the past, more sensitive to the nausea, the tummy cramps, the headaches. The toxicity. I too felt more sensitive than usual…. To the vile, noxious chemicals, that once again are being infused into his small body, causing an only too visible sickness. But without these chemicals the unseen sickness inside continues to grow rapidly.Richard's last update mentioned the spread of the disease which is now in both of Jack's legs. His bone marrow results this week showed it had leapt also in the marrow. His bone marrow which three weeks ago was clear, now has 10% disease, he has lost a kilo in weight. But there is so much reason to hope."

Towards the end of Yvonne's update she says "Please take the time to visit Sam, (www.samanthahughes.co.uk), a beautiful little girl back home in the UK who relapsed in January. Sam's disease has taken off like wildfire. Neil explained they have no option but to stop fighting now, she is in a lot of pain and can no longer have blood transfusions. Neil has been a huge supporter and fundraiser for research back home. Please pray for Sam and her family."

As a result of this I clicked on the link to visit Sam's site and hoped she was at the least comfortable, I was heart broken and breathless to read that Sam had in fact passed away on the 15th April, as you can see from the picture above she was a lovely little girl with her whole life ahead. Learning about Samantha and Jacks ongoing fight, has made me even more pleased to have chosen the charity Joining Against Cancer in Kids. I really hope we can raise a lot of money to help find a cure for the desperate children who are fighting Neuroblastoma. Please spread the word to your friends and colleagues, and consider helping via the widget or via www.justgiving.com/markrobsonchannelswim Thank you very much indeed.

Is That It?

Not a lot to report this time, its been week one of a two week school holiday, therefore training has taken a step back, Charlie has also been ill, so what with that and work, its been a stop start 7 days. Had one brief visit with the kids to Bishopton Lake on Thursday 10th and swam for 31 mins at 9.1 degrees which no side effects, just 3 pool swims over the weekend, I still managed to hit the bare minimum of 20km so not all bad news, more of the same in the coming week I expect.

Many thanks to all those who have been generous enough to donate online thus far and also to those who have pledged on the numerous paper forms in circulation. Also a big thankyou to Gary Dean of GLG Cycles who has very kindly donated enough Maxim to last me through this years training and the swim itself! Please spread the word and help me to raise more pennies for J-A-C-K it truly is a worthy cause.

19 weeks....That's all..

Easter came and went with the same alarming momentum that has built since the onset of 2008. I was having a glance over my swimming figures and was happy enough to see last weeks 25 km coupled with another twenty minutes in the North Sea at 44F.

This week has started OK too, surprisingly the pool I usually use was open on Easter Monday so I managed to get there for a rather rushed (65mins) 4000m around 6pm, whilst Kelly kindly looked after Charlie. I took Tuesday off from Training having swam for 8 days consecutive. Being that I am nights tonight (Wednesday 26th) I decided to get the pool early for a reasonable session this morning. On arrival I was disappointed to find the water temperature up to 31 degrees, uncomfortably warm for anything more than a sprint. Then, after an hour or so the pumps started churning something out that clouded the once clear water, after two more hours, I again experienced some irritation to my throat and chest due the over chlorinated water. That was enough for me to call it a day rather than risk trauma to the respiratory system. 11km -3 hours and 5 minutes. Not what I had planned but better than nothing. No adverse effects to the shoulder.

The fluctuating temperature, over chlorinated water and the lack of policing/management of the lanes have in fact resulted in me cancelling my membership, it's due to expire at the end of April, by which time hopefully I will be doing a lot more open water swimming. In addition to that, as luck would have it, a 50metre pool is due to open in Sunderland at the end of April. Whilst it's a 45 mile drive am sure it will be well worth a visit.

Looking at the calender its now only 19 weeks 'til the beginning of my tides to swim the English Channel. I have been training exclusively in the water for 36 weeks, to date I have swam just short of 700 kilometres. I realise the hard work is yet to come as the cold water season begins in earnest in May, but feel reasonably relaxed at the moment with the knowledge that everything is now arranged.

Many thanks to those who have began donating online, I really appreciate your generosity as does the Joining Against Cancer in Kids Charity. Also a big thank you to all of my Corporate Sponsors especially those who wish to remain anonymous.

Progress

Progress has been made on a number of fronts this week, firstly and perhaps most importantly I have received confirmation email from Julie Bradshaw MBE, (CSA Ltd secretary) confirming receipt and process of my swim registration. That more or less completes the administration side of things, all that remains is the reservation of accommodation for the tidal dates and training weekends in Dover, the Lakes and Cork. I have emailed a couple of recommended hotels in Dover but am yet to receive a reply.

Secondly I am delighted to say the facility to donate online to J.A.C.K. is now live, I have distributed a number of sponsor forms at work and at the pool, there are a lot of pledges, Thank-you all. I would however much prefer where possible for people to make use of the Justgiving widget thus enabling the J.A.C.K foundation to benefit from the 28% it can reclaim through gift aid, the monetary advantages speak for themselves.

Training wise it has been a reasonable week, I am already over the 20 thousand metres, have had a dip outside at 6 degrees as per the previous post and had a 10km time trial, I wanted to swim the ten kilometres on a specific time, I managed to keep every 1000m within 15 seconds of each other with times of 15:45 to 16 mins. I took 15 seconds rest between each km to feed and flip over the counter. A great improvement on this time last year when I had never swam more than 4km in a session, I felt good afterwards with no shoulder pain.

The most stressful area at the moment is weight gain. It is difficult for me, when training most days burning calories in the warm pool to take in sufficient food to compensate, as well make gains. I am using supplements but don't expect great weight gains until such times as the swims are restricted to long weekend swims only? Any advice on this issue would be appreciated!

Had a little check of the calendar today too, its just 25 weeks til the start of my tides, and about 14 weeks until Cork... to make it worse below is a photograph of the swim start at Kinsale, Cork, do you think Ned is trying to frighten me!?

This is the year ..

Its 2008 already, I remember making my initial plans for all of this in 2006, thinking it was 'miles' away, and making my first contact with Andy (my skipper/pilot) yet as usual with this sort of thing, the time has flown by and the year in question has finally arrived. Less than eight months now and the big day will be upon us all.

Not sure if I've mentioned this previously, but whilst looking for something or other on the Internet (about a month ago) I came across the website of Kaise Stefan I was a little spooked to read he lives in a town named 'Fairfield' in Australia. (we live in Fairfield in the UK), not only that, he is swimming the Channel this year and his pilot is also Andy King. The reason I mention this now is that today I received a nice email from Kaise. I am sure it will be worth your while to have a look at his website, its on the links or the hyperlink above. Thanks Kaise..

A few days ago multiple Channel Swimmer, Marcy Macdonald from the USA posted and email on the Channel Swimmers Group with a 'New Years' training set, (the details of which I wont go into), suffice to say after a little consultation via email with her, the total distance was going to be 18. 200 km / 11.3 miles, this was to be a jump from the 10km I completed on 26th November 2007 but I decided to give it a go. I was in the water yesterday for 7am and swam the set as arranged climbing out 5 hours and 50 minutes later. The shoulders ached after about 4 hours and the mental boredom followed soon after, so again it was good mental training and psychologically it was of great benefit. In addition to that, the lengthy swim allowed me the opportunity to test out feeding/hydration. I wanted to experience the discomfort once more, which kicks in after a while. Encouraged that my shoulders seemed to last much longer before any pain issues, I remember being pleased the first time I swam 6km ! so all in all it tells me I am on track.
Its not possible to do long swims outside at this time of the year, usually my pool swims are all about a warm up followed by a series of sprints over say 100, 200 and 400 metres. So, it was a nice change and feel boosted mentally by yesterdays efforts; similar to the feeling after a 100 mile bike ride last year. Thanks Marcy..

School has commenced and training can restart fully; everyone at work now knows about the swim as I posted a message on the internal system, hoping for some support for J-A-C-K.

I'm still waiting for bank details etc with regard to the charity but am assured it will be up and running very soon.

Decision

After a great deal of debate and soul searching it has finally been decided upon which charity to dedicate my Channel Swim effort towards. The newly formed charity J-A-C-K will hopefully benefit from any funds I can raise, the facility to donate online will appear in the first few weeks of the new year. I hope people will agree this is a very worthy cause.

This is a decision Kelly and I have made entirely on our own, we had a couple of responses to our plea for a suitable cause but none exactly fitted what we were looking for. Once we became aware of this research/trial/support programme being established by Yvonne and Richard Brown (Jack Browns parents) we looked a little deeper.. it was then that I felt the almost overwhelming need to assist.

At this stage only the mission statement is displayed on the J-A-C-K web page, though more information will follow very soon, thank you to Yvonne Brown for taking time to speak to me at this very difficult time, our thoughts and prayers are with Jack and the many other children suffering at what should be a joyous time of year.