David Akers

NOTE: THE GREAT NORTH SWIM HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO POOR WATER QUALITY - I HAVE HOWEVER ENTERED THE GREAT SWIM IN SALFORD QUAYS ON THE 26TH SEPTEMBER, SO KEEP THE DONATIONS COMING!

Behind this page is a story that goes back some 20 years or more. In the late 80's I was a keen competitive swimmer and had many friends around the UK and indeed the world. I was fortunate enough to train and compete at the highest level with some of the best British swimmers of the time. One of the people I met at this time was Alyson Duffy, and we exchanged letters regularly up until she competed at the Commonwealth games in 1990. As we both drifted away from swimming, sadly we lost touch.

Move forwards 20 years and the wonders of modern technology saw Alyson (now Weymes) and me reunited via Facebook. It was then that I learned that she had 3 beautiful children one of whom is called Haydn. Haydn was born with a rare chromosome disorder called 18q deletion, which means that every cell in his b... more

NOTE: THE GREAT NORTH SWIM HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO POOR WATER QUALITY - I HAVE HOWEVER ENTERED THE GREAT SWIM IN SALFORD QUAYS ON THE 26TH SEPTEMBER, SO KEEP THE DONATIONS COMING!

Behind this page is a story that goes back some 20 years or more. In the late 80's I was a keen competitive swimmer and had many friends around the UK and indeed the world. I was fortunate enough to train and compete at the highest level with some of the best British swimmers of the time. One of the people I met at this time was Alyson Duffy, and we exchanged letters regularly up until she competed at the Commonwealth games in 1990. As we both drifted away from swimming, sadly we lost touch.

Move forwards 20 years and the wonders of modern technology saw Alyson (now Weymes) and me reunited via Facebook. It was then that I learned that she had 3 beautiful children one of whom is called Haydn. Haydn was born with a rare chromosome disorder called 18q deletion, which means that every cell in his body is missing important genetic information. This has lead to severe disabilities both physical and mental.

Alyson and her husband Richard along with their other 2 children Jessica and Olivia work hard every day to care for Haydn, and having visited them it is clear that he is a very happy young man!

After several discussions with Alyson, the idea of doing some form of fundraising was mentioned. Alyson kindly agreed that it was a good idea, and given my swimming background, suggested the Great North Swim.

So on the 4th September 2010 I will be taking part in this event and after consultation with Alyson would like to do it for the Chin-Up charity.

http://www.greatswim.org/ http://www.chin-up-charity.org.uk/

Chin-Up is a charity established to relieve children and young people (0-18 years) suffering from a progressive or terminal illness by the provision of facilities for family breaks or respite care in the North-East & Cumbria.

Chin-Up is now looking to raise the funds to open a second holiday home somewhere on the West Coast of Cumbria in order to make their service accessible to more families.

I ask you to donate to this great cause, but I also ask you to register and help by using the 'Give as you live' facility. A simple search or EBAY transaction via the everyclick website will provide funds directly to the charity, and the best part is that it is absolutely free! So register now and make your first search '18q deletion'

Every time you wish to search, think of Haydn and Chin-Up and take an extra few seconds to visit this site.

As an incentive I will offer a prize for the person who generates the most from the 'Give as you Live' incentive.

I have set an ambitious target, but one that I think is more than possible to achieve with the help of each of you.