Me and Ciaran's Swim

Swimming - The New Buzzword

Swimming lessons became the buzzword in late 2022 as it was then that Michael at long last, persuaded Ciaran sufficiently to join him in a personal encounter with our very special Dolphin friends. The scene was set for a trip to Zoomarine in Albufeira,

Portugal, where Michael had visited and swum with his fabulous animal spirit guides on numerous occasions before. The concession was that we would travel there in April 2023 and not the high season, in order to accommodate Ciaran’s difficulty with high temperatures.

There was a significant barrier in our way. Ciaran can’t swim. Many people in Ciaran’s past had attempted to help him swim, but for whatever reason was not successful. So as a birthday/Christmas present, Michael paid for professional swimming lessons for Ciaran. It wasn’t cheap. £135 per lesson. Additionally, Ciaran attended weekly swimming sessions at a local swimming pool. A condition for taking part in the dolphin encounter is for participants to be competent swimmers.

This was not going to be a straightforward mission but a very tall order for us. Ciaran needed to find a swimming tutor and start learning to swim from scratch; while Michael needed to re-establish himself in the water again with his physical disability and balance and confidence issues. These processes leading towards being able to manage adequately to swim and tread water have been undertaken by both of us at very substantial personal costs of availability, finances, energy, determination and endurance.

By February 2023, Ciaran had overcome most of his inexperience and difficulties with managing in the water and was able to reach the standard of multiple widths of breaststroke and is well on the way to achieving the important skill of treading in deep water.

Michael can swim, but wouldn’t say he is a very good swimmer. He can swim on a basic level and has done him well to have the many dolphin experiences that he has had with his Dolphin friends. Apart from the last, but one experience.

Michael has had to fully re-engage with the skills he needs to manage swimming and treading to meet the end of March deadline. His concerns are being alleviated gradually as he struggles to understand and gain control over some of his physical limitations. He has displayed enormous courage and determination as he has had to hop from one unfamiliar leisure centre to another between this work shift and that work shift.

Michael went to the Algarve for a Dolphin encounter in 2014. However, this time there was to be a difference. For some reason, Michael had a panic attack whilst in the water. It was a very scary experience. He is someone who would not normally suffer from panic attacks. There was a lot going on for Michael at the time and maybe there was some form of trigger or internal/unconscious anxiety going on.

Michael went back to swim with dolphins a year later and that was fine and as good as ever. Michael did not want this previous experience to be the last memory of swimming with dolphins, as he had done this previous times previously.

However, since that time, Michael now has a physical disability and is dependant on a walking aid (affectionately known as Fungi). Michael has not done any swimming since the onset of his disability As a result, these life affecting experiences has also had a knock on effect of Michael’s confidence and fear levels. As a result, Michael himself has done a few swimming sessions to see how things work and build up his confidence.

We have been there for each other, supporting and egging each other on with these monumental projects. We are praising and encouraging of one another’s achievements on our respective journeys, and we have belief and confidence that we will both be able to cope with our animal spirit guides by the time of our Civil Partnership and the actual dolphin swim in the Algarve, later that same week.

Fingers crossed that both of us will be prepared and confident enough to enjoy this very special moment.

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