Join thousands of other swimmers over the next 12 weeks in swimming 22 miles – the width of the English Channel. This is in aid of Aspire – the charity for people who have suffered spinal cord injuries – by completing lengths at your local Everyone Active pool.

This is the 25th year of the challenge and in that time, more than 60,000 participants from across the country – with more than 2,000 expected to take part in 2024 – have swum a combined total of more than 1.5 million miles and raised more than £7.5 million for the charity – an incredible achievement. This year, the charity is expecting the charity to raise an extra £150,000 to help people who have suffered with spinal chord injuries.

The challenge is to swim the 22 miles between Dover and Calais (or as far as you can) in your local swimming pool over the 12 weeks between 9 September and 2 December 2024. Swimming is a fantastic all-body workout and the Aspire Challenge is a great way to shake off the summer excesses throughout the autumn.

Aspire has helped tens of thousands of people paralysed by Spinal Cord Injury since launching, and the need for its support is growing. Aspire recently conducted some research, showing that every two hours someone is paralysed by a Spinal Cord Injury, doubling the number of people previously known to have a Spinal Cord Injury in the UK. Everything Aspire does is focused on people living as independently as possible, and all the funds raised in the Aspire Channel Swim make a huge difference to our work.

If you’d like to take on this fantastic challenge, click here and you can take part at any of the 140+ Everyone Active centres that include a swimming pool. So why not take part, spread the word and get swimming this autumn?