‘Thanks to my children, I’m finally learning how to swim’
Ali Walsh, 47, is the founder of lifeonaricecake.com, supporting people with coeliac disease. She lives in Brislington, near Bristol, with husband Tim, 51, and their two children, Aidan, seven, and Christina, six.
‘Come on Ali, you can do it!’ the instructor cheers as I approach the halfway mark. Although I don’t quite make it to the end, I smile as I grab on to the side and accept his congratulations. I may not be crossing the
Channel or chalking up the laps, but I’m getting better at swimming each week – and it feels like an enormous achievement.
As a child, I didn’t have much opportunity to go swimming. I went a few times with my school but because I was a complete beginner, I was put in a group with children who were scared of the water; the teacher spent a lot of time coaxing them in, and I never really got the tuition I needed.
Being unable to swim affected me greatly when I was a teenager – once on a French exchange when I was in the pool with some children I didn’t know that well, everyone suddenly raced to the end – but when I tried to join them I swallowed half the pool. I was so frightened and embarrassed.
Although I tried a few more lessons as a young adult, I never had the impetus I needed to push myself that extra mile. I could manage a weak breaststroke but nothing else. In recent years, my husband Tim tried to help, but as he’s a great swimmer and not an instructor, it was hard for him to break down a process that was so natural to him.
For a while I just accepted that swimming was something I couldn’t do. But then my children, Aidan and Christina, were born in 2016 and 2017 and, as they grew, I worried I’d never be able to support them in their own swimming journeys. In autumn 2023, I saw a notice for an adult beginners class at my local pool. I decided to give it one last shot.
I now attend every week, and although I still gulp far too much pool water, I can almost do a length of crawl. Perhaps that seems like a small achievement, but I’m so proud of myself. It’s hard and I have to force myself to go each week, but with my patient instructor and surrounded by other beginners, I’m finally getting into my stride.
‘I’m so proud of myself’