We asked you, our lovely readers, to tell us about your swimming achievements from the past year, and what an inspirational mailbag we received. Without further ado here are our favourites. Prepared to be inspired …Rescue fly …“As a water rescue technician with the London fire brigade I am trained to enter moving and static water to rescue and assist casualties. For this I wear a dry suit and a PFD (similar to a life jacket). I am also tethered to another rescuer on the river bank, by means of a...

I’m a keen wild swimmer and always on the look out for new places to swim, writes Louise Cardwell. So I was delighted when a Google search earlier this year revealed a loch that I never knew existed.Loch Chon is an little known wild swimming paradise located in The Trossachs (Stirlingshire), just northwest of Loch Ard. When I first discovered it, I was looking for somewhere that I could swim myself with just land support, somewhere that was not a haven for kayakers, and somewhere that did not al...