Fred Foundation

MATT’S EPIC JOURNEY ACROSS THE CHANNEL

Fred_Admin1 — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:03:23 +0000

Due to favourable weather conditions Matt ended up setting off for France
at 5.30am on Tuesday morning.

The first 12 hours of the swim went to plan as we passed through both
shipping lanes and passed a number of passenger ferries. The only major
incident during this time was Matt getting a jelly fish full in the face -
something of a rite of passage for channel swimmers.

As we entered French waters and drew to within 3 miles of the French coast
the tide has changed which meant we were dragged sideways and back out
to sea which meant that Matt has to swum to stand still for an hour and a
half.

Despite this he battled on to beat the tide to get himself within 1 mile of
the beach.

Unfortunately this epic battle then took it’s toll. With Matt now barely
able to string a sentence together and floundering through exhaustion, the
crew took the difficult decision to take him out of the water with a mile
to go (he still wanted to carry on). By this stage Matt had been swimming
non-stop for 15 hours 47 mins.

While he didn’t touch French sand, due to the tide Matt actually swum
further than 21 miles during this period. This way an epic day and a truely
great achievement.

What’s more we have managed to raise over £2,000 for the Fred Foundation so
thank you to all of you who contributed.

Bad mum?

Fred_Admin1 — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:42:12 +0000

Spent the day cleaning the house. Two of those hours were spent hoovering and dusting his mattress, changing sheets and wet wiping every inch of his bedroom. Have to do this weekly for him as he has a severe dust allergy – as well as the hay fever, asthma, excema, peanut, latex allergy, (requiring an epipen!) Of all of these allergies the dust allergy is a killer to stay on top of! I haven’t been so good this week and i can see the huge red circles creeping back again under his panda eyes. Having to keep all the windows closed in this heat because of severe hay fever in this heat seems unfair but need to keep the pollen out.

Ho hum, now to put his furry toys in the freezer – hoping there is enough room. I will freeze those dust mites out if it is the last thing i do. Oh, and not forgetting the pillows, chuck them out monthly and buy cheap new ones was the nurse’s advice. Otherwise i have to boil wash them and they take hours to dry!

Stolen Childhood

Fred_Admin1 — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:37:44 +0000

STOLEN CHILDHOOD

I’m going to

Smash through all your barriers

Kick every one apart

So nothing stands between us

And I can reach your heart

I’m going to

Scream away your silence

Destroy your blank disguise

Paint the colour in your cheeks

Switch the light on in your eyes

I’m going to

Chase away each fear you have

Make them run and hide

Tear off all those Russian Dolls

That trap your love inside

I’m going to

Fill your days with sunshine warmth

Enough to melt the frost

And bring to you a childhood

Like it never had been lost

© Irene Ewen 16/08/09

Matt’s Channel Swim Webblog

Fred_Admin1 — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:17:29 +0000

Wetsuits at this stage are for wimps. Admittedly I do have a history of competing in endurance events, although these are usually land based. Marathons and Ironman are one thing but swimming the channel is going to be epic by comparison. Inevitably I get asked why I am doing this? The honest answer is just to see if I can. No more than that. Also, I feel very lucky to be able to give it a go. I wanted to swim for the Fred Foundation to represent young autistic people for whom this kind of challenge would be inconceivable.

Matt’s Channel Swim Webblog

Fred_Admin1 — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:11:43 +0000

Matt’s Channel Swim Webblog

After throwing myself into the sea in Brighton last October to swimming in Portsmouth harbour in January and Tooting Bec Lido in February (water temperature 2 degrees C – I was numb for 3 days)
last weekend’s itinerary included a 7 hour swim on Saturday during the day followed by a 20 minute swim in the dark to get used to what I might face on the day / night. On Sunday we banged out a further 5 hours for good measure. This weekend marks the conclusion of the training with a two 8 hour swims. After that I begin to taper my training towards the big day. This means less swimming and more eating. I cannot think of another sport where it is actually beneficial to gain weight.

MATT IS SWIMMING THE CHANNEL FOR FRED

Fred_Admin1 — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:32:30 +0000

On July 22^nd Matt Gower will be attempting to swim the English Channel on
behalf of the Fred Foundation.

The English Channel is 21 miles wide with the average water temperature
during the swim likely to be in the region of 15 degrees centigrade.
This compares with a standard indoor swimming pool which tends to be around
28 degrees. Wetsuits are against the rules during channel swims.

Matt anticipates the crossing taking around 16 hours. The quickest it has
ever been done is 7 hours, the longest a staggering 26 hours.

Fewer people have successfully swum the channel than have reached the
summit of Mount Everest.

Many of you will be aware of The Fred Foundation and its aims to help
children with autism reach their potential and Matt will be helping the Fred Foundation to raise money to help fund individual specialised education programmes.

Trying to secure the right education for a child with autism is an
immensely long and stressful journey and requires years of dogged
determination
and a belligerent refusal to accept defeat. In comparison to this,
swimming the channel should be relatively straightforward.

Your help and support would be massively appreciated by Matt and the rest
of the Fred Foundation team.

http://www.justgiving.com/difficultnotimpossible

Thanks very much!

I hear this week is Carer’s Week 2010…

Fred_Admin1 — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:56:50 +0000

…as I pen another letter to the Social Services who won’t even match the minimal help I was getting before I moved house. Seems they must think that my changing post codes must mean my son has miraculously shaken off his autism and got better with age. The social worker came round to interview me and fill in another Core Assessment – “what stresses you out the most she asked?” - “the constant fight with Education and Social services to get any support at all” I said- when I get the assessment back I see she hasn’t written that bit down.

Confucius..

Fred_Admin1 — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:03:01 +0000

“If a person takes no thought about what is distant, they will find sorrow near at hand” If we don’t think about the wider world, we will grow narrow-minded and sad. That is roughly what Confucius was driving at in this observation.The wider world may give us cause for concern but at least it gives us perspective.

At last she is like other children…

Fred_Admin1 — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:26:55 +0000

I had the radio on this morning in the car and heard there is a new book out today about Charles de Gaulle. I didn’t know that he had a daughter with special needs whom he adored. When she died he and his wife spent a long time sitting by her grave until he said “Come, let us go from here, at last she is like other children…”

Dame Stephanie Shirley

Fred_Admin1 — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:12:41 +0000

Just returned from Horseboy Camp – great but absolutely exhausting. Met some great families with autistic children but how hard it is for them. The constant attention required would kill lesser people.

Listening to Radio 4 Desert Island Disc podcast with Dame Stephanie Shirley - an amazing woman who has done and is doing so much for Autism. But, even she had a breakdown and ended up in hospital whilst she was looking after her late son who had autism – makes me feel slightly better about having a bad day.