The Charity

I am very big on charity, but I am a great believer that charity begins at home.

Ok so maybe I am biased.......

I am the Treasurer and a Volunteer at a local charity Bath Swim Therapy, we are a small organisation that teach Disabled Children to swim.

See us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bath-Swim-Therapy/288977751128305
(sorry a little plug is always a must)

In many ways the Charity is my life, I absolutely adore the time I spend there be it in the water teaching or messing around with the Kids or sat on poolside being sensible and mature.

I see all the kids as if they were my own and I love them all dearly. Each one is unique and you will never find one like them.

Two years come October I ODd and the charity pulled me through supporting me when others just ignored me and let me go but Bath Swim Therapy, the children, parents and the swimming teacher supported me whilst I got myself back on my feet. The gave me something to look forward to something to enjoy and with their help I recovered and came back stronger.

They nurtured me not only in my recovery but paid for me to learn how to teach, they gave me responsibility and often a reason to get up in the morning. They would encourage me to talk about what was upsetting me and would help as best they could. I suppose in a way you could call me their prodigy. They turned me into who I am today, a strong, mature, independent yet caring young woman who finds the best in any person and encourages them to strive for achievement. I am not saying that there is some children that can be difficult to do this with at times but it does encourage me to try harder to make that child achieve the goals that we put in front of them and the greatest reward is to see how they improve and to make them aware of it.

Different children, especially the ones that I find difficult to work with at first help me to broaden and refine my skills because what works for one may not necessarily work for another.

Because of them I am able to be who I need to be at the time to get the best out of the child.

I thoroughly enjoy working with all the children as each one has something different to offer, and now I cannot see my life without them in it.

Sometimes I wonder weather or not I have taken on too much of a role with the charity especially when I have days like today when I am struggling with the paperwork. At times like these I look and recall all the children that have improved as a direct result I have had on them and it gives me the motivation to carry on and when I have completed it and made a good job of it I feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment that I did it, I improved my skills and that I did it on my own.

I don't have to do these things on my own I always have the support of the other parents and the swimming teacher but to know I have achieved it on my own gives me a greater feeling of achievement and I thank my lucky stars that they are always there for me and always will be.