Lorna Walsh

As the sun sets on August and my daffodil day dips I have been incredibly humbled by all who have joined me each weekend to brave the cold in aid of cancer research! To those who have contributed to this life changing cause, thank you, I have exceeded my target by so much and thank you from the depths of my heart! You are such good, kind generous people, my friends and family and I hope that each one of us can benefit from this generosity in a meaningful way to help build a cancer free future for all.

Sunday swim day and dip #6 for the Daffodil day dip!!! The water was a notch warmer today at 13° and it was a magnificently sunny day with crystal clear water. Just heavenly. Today Angela and I were joined by my beautiful brave friend Alison Gilmour for her first winter dip, the always fun Mick Sims and first time dipper Sasha Taylor.

Today, Saturday, my lovely friend Karen joined me for a very quick and very cold dip. As we battled through the seaweed, i tried to distract us with my time keeping efforts  and we eventually stayed in for 5.24 minutes! I vented, Karen listened, and then we both felt invigorated while walking home! Every minute counts, if you can, donate to this extremely worthy cause today! Tomorrow is our big effort day!

Today was cold!!! But we had a new friend join us so that’s made the chat in the water easier and we lasted a little long than we’d planned. Only about 10 mins today but in 12° that was enough!

Today’s cold dip is in celebration of my beautiful cousin Rebecca who died of breast cancer several years ago now. Bec was always like a big sister to me. I was a bit afraid of her when I was a teenager, she was just so damn cool! She came to Melbourne once and we were sitting in an Irish bar, when this guy starts intruding on our conversation, (as they do 🫣). So Bec quickly starts speaking in Irish and saying what an amadán yer man is etc… sadly for us he also spoke Irish and was not impressed with what we were saying about him…I still remember her wicked laugh! She died at 47. 

Today was one of those days! It's been a very rough few weeks worrying about my darling mum (94) - a breast cancer survivor, she has been battling her health and in hospital recently. Going back and forth to the hospital has taken it's toll on me  and now she's home, the worry of caring for her is big... but today, today,  I got some respite and plunged into the 12 degree water. I screamed, I cursed, I yelled at the waves. I got all my worries out through those waves. I felt SO good afterwards! My body fizzed, my mind cleared and I felt the strength to take on another day. My winter dips do more than clear my head, they invigorate me! And give me strength to face the next day. Imagine what some more research might do to rid those worries about cancer today. Donate if you can, every $$ does help!

As the sun sets on a beautiful winter’s  day here I’m thrilled that today I got a quick dip in the water just before this glorious sunset! Yes it was cold! But so invigorating and I’m thrilled that my new local friends made the call and encouraged me to join them for a quick dip! How lucky we are! We have also made the commitment to do this every week, even before August

Having earlier this week undertaken the Dark Mofo Nude swim in beautiful Hobart, I figure that our Victorian waters can't be much colder than that (even in August).  So I'm still planning to take a cold plunge in the water at Merricks Beach at least once a week in August. The discomfort I felt is very small when compared to those facing life changing disease, so I plan to scream it out and endure the cold for just a few minutes.  Would you like to join me?