Breaking news from the MS Society!

It's been a brilliant 3 days, with news of a huge clinical trial into a potential treatment for MS (and two personal bests)!


Today, I left work and got on the Tube. It was quite late, so there were plenty of free seats and spare copies of the newspaper lying about. I put the 'Manual of Freediving' in my satchel and picked up the Evening Standard to see this story on the front page...





You can click on the picture for a link to the full article.


The MS Society and the UK Stem Cell Foundation are jointly funding a number of studies to investigate whether the use of stem cells can help to slow, stop, or even reverse the damage caused by MS to the brain and spinal cord.


My heart always skips a beat whenever a story like this appears. They appear surprisingly frequently but it's a long and difficult road from clinical trials to an effective and affordable treatment.

When someone you love has MS, you feel so helpless watching as they get progressively more disabled. They can get much worse almost overnight, as in a relapse or attack, or it can be a gradual process. Maybe one day out shopping you notice that their leg is dragging much more than usual, or you see their hands shaking while they try to hold a mug, or you start "hugging" by linking your little fingers, because proper hugs hurt too much. Mum doesn't really open up to me about her feelings about the future of her health (she's intensely private, and that's why I haven't mentioned her more on the blog). I imagine that for Mum, as for the poet Colette Waller who I featured in my last post, it ultimately comes down to being terrified of getting worse.


So the search for better treatments or a cure for MS feels like a race against time for my family. It's fantastic to see charities collaborating to fund international clinical trials into cutting-edge treatments for MS. If there is hope that by the end of these trials a treatment is in sight that might help my Mum, then I have all the motivation I need to get me to 100ft.

To learn more about this particular research, please see the video below:



Yesterday, I managed a PB in Static of 4mins 45sec!

The day before yesterday I managed a PB in Dynamic of 120m!

Milestones and more...

"I'm a freediver, it's sunny. Why am I sat here scanning documents?..."

- Sam

Well, quite. The lack of updates recently is because I've been spending far too much time at the office, twitching my mermaid's tail irritably under the desk and gazing wistfully at my freediving computer background.

It's only been three weeks but I'm in withdrawal. Symptoms include: spending too much time on DeeperBlue during my lunch hour, trying to convince myself I can blow my scholarship money on a freediving holiday to Tenerife, sneaky 25m DNF's during swimming sessions and unexpected feelings of nostalgia at the smell of neoprene (no, really).

My last trip to Saltfree was a good one though! It was great to meet some of the Great Northern contingent, who were really friendly and supportive of the Challenge. Some have already made a donation to the MS Society - thank you very much guys, it's much appreciated :D. With so many people on the platform and the sun breaking through the clouds for the first time in weeks, there was a bit of a holiday atmosphere!




Harry and I were having a bit of a lazy day...lots of stretching on the platform, numerous shallower warm-up dives and lengthy breaks in between freedives to drink redbush tea, soak up some sun and have a natter. By contrast, the Great Northern contingent adopt the straight-in-and-straight-down-the-line-to-a-PB method! As a result, we were the source of much amusement. "Oh!" said Ben as I was putting on my monofin for my 25m attempt, his wide-eyed innocence belied by the barely-suppressed grin, "are you actually getting in now?!".



Luckily for us, by the end of the afternoon we both managed to add our own PB's to the brilliant results already achieved by our friends. Harry easily reached 27m FI, while I managed 25m CWT. It feels like a proper milestone along the way to completing the 100ft Freedive Challenge! Mark's seminar on "Dealing with Diving Demons in Constant Weight" helped in two important ways: 1. I was able to try and deal with any uncertainty and nerves during the warm-up dives; and 2. Using visualisaion during the dive meant I felt much more focused and in control.


Harry gave me the psychological boost I needed before the 25m dive using a bit of a cheeky trick. Knowing that I was more than capable of it, he set the line to 23m in order that I'd exceed my PB without knowing it. "How was it?", he asked as I surfaced. "Great!", I smiled in response, "but it was only 21m". "Oh no it wasn't!" he replied, "I set the line a bit deeper". He couldn't say anything after that because I was simultaneously trying to hug him and drown him.

Since then it's been pool training only. A friend's wedding last weekend meant that it was out of the wetsuit and into a floral dress and jewellery, which I must admit felt quite strange! By all accounts I missed a fantastic weekend at Saltfree, with Sam and Hannah teaching loads of students and some regular Saltfree-ers taking a dip. Particularly proud of my AIDA** course mate Tom D, who made a PB of...wait for it...39m! See below for a brilliant photo taken by Hugh last weekend; more are available on the Saltfree Facebook page, if anyone needs further convincing of how much fun Saltfree courses are!



Pool training is going swimmingly *cough*. No movement on the PB's, which stand at 105m DYN and 4min STA respectively. However, I've been trying out loads of new training exercises: dynamic tables, sideways and upside-down monofinning, lengths as fast or as slow as possible, lengths using as few kicks as possible, almost drowning laughing while attempting to blow bubble rings and, best of all, static dynamics. These involve a short static followed a length of dynamic, all on one breath. The statics are gradually increased; I think we were doing about 1 min static at 3m, 33m dynamic by the end, which felt very comfortable. I'm not sure how it works, but I feel like someone's put me in a sleepy trance.

Tim's training for a triathlon at the moment, so is usually speeding lengths on the surface. When he has a chance to freedive he's been using a heart-rate monitor to investigate the effect of various breathing techniques (you can take an IT geek out of the office...). I've been buddying and have been intrigued by the results, as described after he's done all his computery-analysis on the information. On Thursday of last week Tim kindly lent me his heart rate monitor and buddied me while I did 100m DYN wearing it. I'm really excited to see the results and will post them here soon.

I'm looking forward to meeting Mark on Thursday for some sports coaching (more on this to follow). It's also T - MINUS 4 DAYS AND COUNTING until the next Saltfree meet. Hope to see some of you there!