Robert began his mission to raise awareness of Cystic Fibrosis after getting to know someone who had lived with it for forty one years. As he puts it;

“She inspired me with her courage and enthusiasm for life.”

“She just gets on with life. From time to time she gets ill and ends up back in the hospital. If she has a lifesaving class with a group of children she leaves the hospital, runs the class, and goes back in. She describes herself as very stubborn. When I first met her I thought if this lady can put up with Cystic Fibrosis for forty one years, a forty two mile swim is nothing.”

Robert describes how his impending feat is nothing in comparison to his friend’s, now forty six, determination to stay alive.

“She recently got an OBE for years of service teaching lifesaving classes to the community. It’s not about me she is the star of the show. Everyone I have ever met who knows her thinks she is brilliant.”

One day he hopes that CF will mean Cure Found instead of Cystic Fibrosis.

Robert will be swimming across the English Channel, both ways, alone, in August 2017 to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. His target goal for fundraising is 5,000 Euros. So far he has raised a total of 1,600 and many messages of encouragement on his fundraising page.
A glance at his twitter page shows countless hours spent training with his coach Keith. In Robert’s words;

“Keith is a man who inspires and trains people to do the impossible. Not one else would give me a chance of swimming for forty hours in shorts continuously in sixteen degrees.”

Click here to donate to Robert’s swim for the cause, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust here and click here to donate to Cystic Life’s grassroots research efforts to examine if exercise can replace one treatment per day for Cystic Fibrosis patients.
Read more about the Cystic life community here.