The former Paralympic champion training in Leicestershire for a very special record attempt
Melanie Barratt wants to become the first blind woman to swim the English Channel solo
A former Paralympic swimming champion is training in Leicestershire for the achievement of a lifetime.
Melanie Barratt is aiming to become the first blind woman to swim the English Channel solo, after falling in love with open water swimming from an early age.
Melanie won gold medals at the Sydney and Atlanta Paralympics and has since turned to teaching children to swim.
But she's recently picked up her passion, completing a 10k open water swim and the Thames marathon last year - with her focus now set on traversing lake Windermere in September as a final build up to the channel.
'I've upped my game to Windermere which I'm getting increasingly nervous about. Whenever I tell people that I'm going to be swimming ten miles they say, you what? you wearing a life jacket? But I think it's a good step up to the Channel - that's a huge, huge thing; it's kind of my life long dream', Mel told Greatest Hits.
Initially frightening, eventually amazing
Melanie wants her journey to raise awareness around blind people and open water, and she wants to encourage those who have similar conditions to her to feel more comfortable in such settings.
She says the first few steps can be scary, but the benefits of learning to swim blind are more than worth it:
'I've always thought it would just be impossible for somebody who couldn't see well enough. I can't see under the water and I can only see bright shapes and colours above the water so it's very limited, and when I first tried it it was incredibly scary. Took me a long time to put my face in the water, but gradually I got more confident.'
'I really feel for people that are visually impaired and can't swim because it's a really difficult thing to learn, but if you can then it's such an incredible thing to do - I think perhaps because we've lost some sight then the rest of our body is a lot more sensitive to the stimulations you get from being in the water.'