History

I always find people’s backgrounds and life experiences interesting. Everyone is different and takes different life paths. There was a background to this business that I like to share……..

I’m passionate about the natural world and our environment, I have been since I was a small child. Addicted to any kind of natural history TV I could get my eyes on. I studied environmental management at university and subsequently worked in the waste sector for over ten years. What started out at grass roots level soon became a very suited and booted, corporate lifestyle. Travel, meetings, reports, working with governments and business, changing the way we manage waste in the UK. I loved my job.

Then I started a family! I tried to juggle work and childcare for a while but my perspective had changed. Was I really making a difference anymore? Had I just become another cog in the corporate machine, generating profits for some higher power but not really creating beneficial change any longer?

Things just didn’t feel quite right and so, after the birth of my second child, I decided not to return to work and hunkered down to life full time with two small boys. I subsequently suffered from a bout of post-natal depression but slowly, with time, I began to heal. Part of my healing process was the water………..

I’ve always been happy in and around water, a regular recreational swimmer at my local pool with my dad as a child. Later I became a kayaker, many happy days spent on rivers and the sea. Water was very much my happy place.

But I left all of that behind in my corporate world. Too little time, a little too much faff to enjoy the water. Swimming became a thing of the past, taken over by the greater convenience of the gym.

But depression is a tough mistress. It needs careful management, often with a toolbox of solutions to keep it at bay. Exercise is one of those tools.

I tried running and cycling. I ended up injured from running and it’s so hilly where we live cycling is just plain hard! And so the pool called me. I re-learnt how to swim front crawl, discovered the mind clearing power of a long steady swim. I went outside into the cool water of the Peak District and didn’t look back.

I got hooked, on the swimming, the cool water, the people, the fresh air, the calm, the birds, the trees, the seasons. It became more than just a form of exercise, it’s become a way of life. My place to unwind, relax, a place of mindfulness. To explore new places and new friends. To think clearly, to cry, to laugh, to whoop, to squeal. The kind of euphoria that I find hard to gain in other parts of life.

And so, from that joy, Peak Swims was born. A way to share my experience so that others can enjoy the water in the way that’s right for them. Whether that be through learning to swim from scratch, dipping in a waterfall or taking on a swim challenge.