Sadly, the attempt was aborted due to the cold, jelly fish stings, rough seas, strong current and me losing my head and allowing thoughts of getting into the boat get the better of me.

Three days leading up to the off, I wasn’t nervous, neither was I apprehensive, I just wanted to get on with it. However, from nowhere I would get a rush of butterflies to my tummy.

This rush of direct adrenaline kept coming through the nights and subsequently keeping me awake. The seagulls and other wildlife in Goring By Sea made certain I wasn’t getting back to sleep. By the time I reached Dover I was already sleep deprived and running on adrenaline.

Pulling into Dover sat in the back of my car with Jonny Bee, my wife Lindsey driving and my mum riding shotgun. We parked up and met with the lovely Ali whom I had met in Durley. Ali is an experienced ultra marathon swimmer with bags of experiences and the bedside manner of Florence nightingale. She had kindly offered to be our head of crew and to help my mum make up my feeds.

I had been sent a ‘pin’ via google maps on where to meet our pilot, so we made our way over to the locked harbour gates. After a short while our vessel ‘Sea Satin’ was ready for us to board. Unfortunately, our official observer from CS&PF did not arrive, this unsettled both my crew and me. Only a few weeks earlier a poor soul had lost his life at sea and the importance of an observer was highlighted. The captain of our boat (Lance Oram) told us not to worry as his teenage daughter was able to fill the position.  Lance gave us an 8- minute notice that we would soon be at Shakespeare Beach where I would need to jump into the black sea and swim to shore to start the swim.

The crew started to ready the bags and my swim kit was organised. I put in my ear plugs, stretched on my swim cap and adjusted my goggles with an adventure light fixed to the straps, Ali connected a green adventure light to my trunks and Lindsey started to put on my sun cream despite the rain now falling and the wind picking up. It was now 1am and the sea was rolling in a way that told me in no uncertain terms who was boss.

I jumped into the sea and was immediately disoriented. Firstly, it was pitch black, I’m hard of hearing at the best of times but my ears were further restricted with the ear plugs, swim hat, noise of the ocean and the gentle purr of the diesel engine.   With my senses distorted I started swimming to shore, after a short while I was standing on the beach with my arms raised high above my head signalling to the crew that I was ready to start my swim to France. Nothing. Nothing happened. I hadn’t realised that the observer wanted to wait until the second hand hit a full minute so that it would be easier to record my time at the end of the swim. The wait felt like a lifetime.

As I set off into the darkness, I encountered my first sting. These jellyfish hang around in the seaweed so every time I went through seaweed, I would get stung. Within the first hour I had taken 8 stings. I had my first feed, and it was quite clear from the tension on the line holding on to my bottle just how aggressive the current was. I was starting to get cold.

Ultimately, after four hours the cold, stings and tiredness had taken its toll, I knew I wasn’t going to be able warm up and the entire experience was quite frankly traumatic. I decided that it just wasn’t my time to get across the channel. My attempt was over.

Despite not completing my challenge, I have raised over £7,000 for Young Minds, a mental health charity for children. Thank you to everyone who has donated. If you would like to add to the pot then my sponsorship page can be found here.