Sophie Ryan is swimming across the English Channel from England to France on 6 July 2018 - provided the weather conditions are safe.

Fundraising

I have covered the cost of the swim myself, I am raising funds for the following charities:

• Griffith Barracks MDS - my children attend this fabulous school which is about to acquire the keys to its newly constructed building. They will have facilities that they have not previously had such as a sports hall, a library, a sensory room and a roof garden. I would really like to raise funds to help make these facilities the best they can be for both my children and a lot of local children that I know. More money for schools is better than less money for schools.

You can donate here: https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/11370851_sophie-ryan-s-fundraising-page.html

• Our Lady's Childrens Hospital Crumlin/The National Children's Research Centre - my local children's hospital. My son had a health scare a while back and they were excellent.
• NMH Foundation - my daughter was born at Holles Street and my son was born at home under the expert care of their community midwives.
• The Irish Cancer Society - I know several people undergoing treatment currently and my husband lost his father to cancer.
• The Dog's Trust Ireland - all of my dogs have been adopted from The Dogs Trust, I am passionate about rehoming/adopting dogs.

You can donate to any of the above charities here - https://www.justgiving.com/teams/swimsophswim

The Swim

More people have climbed Mount Everest than successfully completed this swim - it is an arduous task that I have set myself but I have worked incredibly hard to be ready. If you are interested in my training and my experiences throughout my training you can read my story on the blog on this site.

The distance is approximately 33 Kilometres point to point. In general swimmers swim between 35 and 40km.

I will have my own pilot boat, Louise Jane (like their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LouiseJaneCharters/ to be able to track my swim on the day).

My pilot Andy King will navigate me through the waters, the shipping lanes and liaise with the French Coastguard. I am not allowed to touch the boat. The entire swim must be completely unaided, I am allowed to feed throughout my swim but this needs to happen quickly so I don't start to lose my position.

I will not be wearing a wetsuit. The water is cold 14-18C. There will be jellyfish.

The fastest swim is a little over 7 hours and the slowest nearly 27 hours I aim to come somewhere in between those times.