Exploring Cold Water Swimming with Millie

Discover how cold water swimming transformed one woman's wellness journey. Ever thought about conquering your deepest fears while discovering an incredible wellness practice? Meet Millie, who transformed from a runner terrified of open water to a passionate cold water swimmer pushing the boundaries of personal comfort.

At the heart of Millie's journey is the Bluetits Chill Swimmers - a community that offers far more than just swimming for all ages, abilities and disabilities. Through candid storytelling, she reveals how cold water swimming became a powerful form of self-care, offering unexpected mental and physical benefits. From overcoming a childhood fear of seaweed to completing three-mile swims in the Thames, Millie's story is about challenging personal limits and finding connection.

 This episode is packed with practical insights about community, resilience, and wellness. Millie shares beginner-friendly tips, personal challenges, and the profound emotional support she's found through open water swimming. Her journey demonstrates how stepping outside your comfort zone can lead to transformative experiences - and how wellness often comes from the most unexpected places.

 Whether you're skeptical about cold water swimming, curious about this alternative wellness practice or seeking inspiration, Millie's story will motivate you to embrace new experiences and discover your own strength. Who knows, her story may just inspire you to take the plunge – literally!

Outdoor swimming is physically challenging and carries with it certain risks to personal injury. Please approach cold water swimming responsibly esp when getting started – select your location carefully and join an experienced group such as the Bluetits. 

 
Timestamps:

 00:00 Meeting Millie: A Journey to Wellness

 00:42 From Running to Triathlons and Overcoming Fears

 01:46 Discovering the Joy of Open Water Swimming

 04:27 Joining the Bluetits: Community and Camaraderie

 07:18 The Addictive Nature of Cold Water Swimming

 15:48 Challenges and Triumphs in Open Water

 23:15 Memorable Events and Volunteering

 27:27 Tips for Aspiring Open Water Swimmers

 30:03 Conclusion: More Than Just Swimming

 
Resources related to this episode:

 Bluetits Chill Swimmer: https://thebluetits.co/

 Open water safety advice: https://outdoorswimmer.com/featured/outdoor-swimming-safety-and-risk-assessment/

Thanks for listening.

Transcript

Ep 4 Open Water Swimming With Millie Miles

​[00:00:00] 

Welcome to the Exploring Ways to Wellness podcast, where we investigate different approaches to wellness. Today's episode is all about finding joy community and personal growth. In the most unexpected place. Cold water swimming. Millie's story is anything but ordinary. From overcoming a childhood fear of open water to becoming a passionate cold water swimmer. She proves that wellness is about so much more than just physical fitness.

Get ready to be inspired by this chilly journey of courage, community, and unexpected discoveries that could become your new way of improving your wellness. 

Sarah: Hello Millie and I met when we were [00:01:00] giving out medals at the last Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. So that was a very exciting time and actually since then I've been following Millie on Facebook because she has had a very interesting, unconventional route, into a wellness practice.

So Welcome, Millie. Thank you very much for agreeing to be on the Exploring Ways to Wellness podcast.

Angie Mills-Cooper: You're very welcome.

Sarah: Would you like to give us a bit of your background and how you started looking for something a bit different to aid your wellness?

Angie Mills-Cooper: So originally I was a runner really enjoyed the runner's high. I had explored everything I could with running. I, I'd done the 5Ks, I'd gone to the 10Ks, I'd done the half marathons, and I peaked with a marathon. 

Under the age of 50, which I did. And that, that sort of closed that book for me.

I'd done it. There was nowhere else for me to go with it really. And I thought, well, what, what can I do next? What, what, how can I [00:02:00] push myself out of that comfort zone? And how, how can I show my children at the time, which are now young adults, that actually you can overcome any fear that you have. And I, as a child, had a fear of open water. Due to mainly the fact that I'd been taken to Blackpool Beach as a child and gone running into the sea and been surrounded by lots of seaweed and got cocooned in it and thought I was going to drown since then I've not gone near the sea You know, if we go to the seaside, I won't go in And definitely not gone in any lakes or anything like that. So I decided that I would do a triathlon because I thought that would share my love of, of, I can do a bit of running, I can do a bit of cycling and I can do a bit of swimming. So,

Sarah: Wow.

Angie Mills-Cooper: up for a triathlon just a sprint one, a small one, and the triathlon was due to take place in Bristol in, in June, and By [00:03:00] March time, I'd still not put my toe in anything, anything shapely like outside water.

Swimming pool, absolutely, but outside water, no. I went off to the outdoor show at the NEC and was surrounded by all these people that look very athletic, not like my good self, and much younger than I was. And I thought no, I'm not going to be put off, I'm going to buy a wetsuit. So I bought a wetsuit I managed to find a very secluded lake which was lifeguarded and dragged the husband along and got into my wetsuit, got into my socks, got into the hat, all the gear on, all the gear and no idea at that time and took

50 paces down into the lake, had a major panic attack and came running out.

Never gonna do it again, I can't do it, I can't break it. Went home, gave myself a good talking to, back the following week, and as luck would have it, there was a lady already swimming in the lake [00:04:00] this time. So, as I neared the edge of the water, she was swimming towards me and I just started chatting to her. And the diversion tactic of just chatting whilst I was getting in and talking to her about her swimming escapades, actually I got in and I'd swum 200 meters in and back before I knew what I'd done. And so, I realised that there's this camaraderie that comes with swimming. I went

Sarah: did you, did you expect that kind of, that camaraderie to be part of it or you thought of it as a solo activity?

Angie Mills-Cooper: I just, I felt it was a solo activity for me because a lot of the time when you're swimming, your head down and you're, you're, you're isolated. But this lady was very chatty. She, you know, she said to me, is it your first time here? Have you swum anywhere else? This is what I do. Have you tried breathing?

Have you tried this? Have you tried that? And by the time we got round, I felt like I'd known her for years. And that's lot of ways what's [00:05:00] actually happened over the last couple of years. So cut a long story short, I did my triathlon and there were lots of athletic people there all doing front crawl and heading and jumping in off the side and doing nice dives.

And I lowered myself in gradually and I did the swim and I, you know, I finished it and I was really, really proud of myself. And, I realised that I don't actually like cycling that much and I've done the running I sort of hung on to the swimming and I thought well I've I've done that what can I do next and I was on Facebook one day and I saw a ladies swimming group and I thought well well you know I might I might go along and try that and see what it's like because I've done a lot of swimming on my own and my husband thought I was mad because I joined this Facebook group and they said, Oh, we meet in this pub car park on a Tuesday night at six o'clock. Why don't you come along? So I said to me or my husband, I'm going to meet this group of ladies in this pub car park [00:06:00] at six o'clock and go for a swim. And he was convinced I was going to get murdered. So I turned up in this pub car park, not knowing anybody. I met this group of ladies that were all stood around in their dry robes, walked across the field, across the back of the car park, had a swim with them, came back and everything was okay. I just started swimming in lots of different places and got to meet lots of different people just joining different Facebook pages and different groups, you get to swim with different people. Everybody in the water is the same. You can be a princess or you can be a cleaner or you can be a director of a company, you know, everybody in the water.

It's that vulnerability that everybody is the same and everybody just wants to be there because it makes them feel really, really good. 

Sarah: I've certainly seen it been popping up a lot more on, you know, Facebook pictures and things that I've seen. And even in, you know, things on the TV and in films as well, [00:07:00] there seem to be more and more

Angie Mills-Cooper: films that are

Sarah: depictions of groups.

Angie Mills-Cooper: yeah, that we've, we've caught on to this. There's, there's, there's your summer swimmer and there's your winter swimmer. And I,

done my triathlon in June and I've done a few more swimmers and it was starting to get towards the winter. And I was thinking, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to carry this on when it gets really, really cold. So I thought I will just keep going and see how far I can go. And you don't have

Sarah: Oh, my goodness.

Angie Mills-Cooper: In a lake, or in a river. got a Lido very close to where I live, which is very, very well supported which I often swim in as well, and I've recently invested in a little pod in the back garden as well, so I can get my cold water fix even when I'm not going to a lake or a Lido.

So, I got through that first winter. I swam through wearing a long wetsuit. The following winter I did a short wetsuit and this winter I'm trying to progress to just a swimming costume. So

Sarah: Oh, my gosh.

Amazing.

Angie Mills-Cooper: of [00:08:00] different things that you can do. I, I was trying to think about the other day about how I would how fantastic it is and how I could relate it. The only thing I can relate it to is when you get a runner's high when you've been and had a cold water swim, you get a swimmer's high, and I would say it's probably ten times the height of a runner's high. It's very, very heightened. Lots of people do become addicted to it. And I've got friends that are doing a dip a day for a year or a dip a day for a month. And you know,

people form friendships and the camaraderie is amazing. So the group that I belong to is called the Bluetits, it was started by a lady called Sian and Sian lives in Pembrokeshire on the coast. And she started the Bluetits few years ago now because her and her friend would go down to the, to the beach. Get in the sea come out and they'd be all euphoric afterwards. So she started this phenomenon [00:09:00] years ago and we now have different flocks all over the UK I belong to two flocks because I'm on the border of both. And we also have some Bluetits that are, are international as well. 

Sarah: Is this a group for people who are well established at doing open water swimming or is it for new people? There are people with varying abilities in each group. So you've got somebody like me that's swum for a few years, and we encourage those new people that, much like I was three years ago, that come onto the group and say, I want to give it a go, I'm not sure, what do I do? so we say, come along, have a go. You know, if you want to come and watch the first few times, that's absolutely fine. But you get drawn in. I mean, I've made some really amazing friends. All my, call them normal friends, but all my normal friends think I'm bonkers for doing swimming in lakes, swimming in rivers, cold water swimming. So I have my swimming friends. it just, [00:10:00] it just gets, gets you like a snowball. It really does become addictive to the point where, you know, we, we set up swims every week. We invite anybody in the flock should come along. We take pictures. We'll do strange things like we'll dress up. so we had an Advent December. So each day in December you had to have a certain theme if you were swimming. And we shared those, those photographs online. And it's just about encouraging and empowering people to achieve more than they think they can do. And actually asked the group when I, I told the group that I was going to come and do a podcast. I said, give me one word that you, you feel about swimming. And I'd really love to share with the, the, the group tonight. Some of the words that have come up over and over again. So overwhelmed. get that real sense of overwhelming. It can be an overwhelming calmness. It can be, it can be an overwhelming rush grounded. So you feel it, [00:11:00] you know, everything's grounded, particularly if you're swimming in a lake and there's, you know, you and possibly one other person in there, you can look around and you can see things that you wouldn't see from the bank of a river. And, you know, you feel that you are at nature you can see the birds in the trees. If you're swimming at dusk, you can see the bats. You can see some fish, which some of us don't like to necessarily see. but, but you can feel that real at one with nature. with nature. Thankful and

I can imagine that being a feeling.

Angie Mills-Cooper: Absolutely. You know, thankful and grateful. You know, I start conversations with people all the time when I'm swimming and I swim at some places that are lifeguarded and you, you book a session and you go along and I swim at places that are, you know, a river and I take a group along. You can feel thankful and grateful for, for many, many things. I was swimming with the lady a few weeks ago that I'd never met before. And as we, we were getting in, we, or, you know, do the normal breathing exercises as you're getting [00:12:00] in and have a bit of a chat. I said, Oh, you know what, what are you doing tomorrow? You know, just a bit of chit chat. And she said, Oh, actually, my husband's having open heart surgery. was like, it was almost like being a hair dresser because people tell you things you wouldn't tell a stranger in the street, but you're in, you know, In a lake swimming with this person you've never met before, and they will tell you the most personal things ever. And you know, I said to her, so what are you doing here?

Why are you, why are you swimming the night before your husband's having open heart surgery? Why aren't you with him? Because I need to be here for me, so that I can be there for him tomorrow was her answer. So, it,

share those real personal, personal things. Back, back to the words one of my swimming buddies said they felt blessed. not necessarily in a religious way, but they felt blessed that they, they can access this wonderful body of, of nature. At One With Nature kept coming up

Sarah: That's beautiful.

Angie Mills-Cooper: Yeah buzzing, you know, that takes us [00:13:00] back to the old runner's high. If you come out the water and you've had a, you know, you've gone in there and it's three degrees, you come out and you are buzzing.

And it's, some, some people say it's like drinking five espressos. 

Sarah: Is that when it hits when you come out or when it's

the cold water?

Angie Mills-Cooper: your body temperature keeps dropping for, for a few minutes after you come out. So we always say, Some people use that rule of you can stay in for a minute every, every degree. So if it's five degrees staying for five minutes, that's a total myth. You get out when you've had enough, because I can use as my tolerance level today would be very different tomorrow. So you know, when you've had enough. So if people say to me, tell me when it's 10 minutes, I'm going to get out. I, the answer is no, you know, when you've got to get out and you don't swim by anybody else's rules, you go by your own rules. 

Sarah: That sounds very important.

Angie Mills-Cooper: Yeah, yeah, and, and lots of the places that we go to when we've got new people, we'll make sure that they are lifeguarded places, so that if they're, something does happen because there is the cold water [00:14:00] aftershock that can be very, very dangerous, that's when people, have that massive drop and it, it can take a long time for them to come back and some very experienced swimmers still, still have those as well. But actually, that's one of the reasons why we swim in a group

Sarah: Yeah. Would you

always recommend them to be in a group?

Angie Mills-Cooper: So yeah, I mean, when we swim together, you get out and you look after each other. Even if I don't know somebody that's at a lake and I see them looking a bit, maybe blue on the lips or a bit shivery, I'll go over and ask them if they're okay. And that's, the swimming community.

They, that everybody does that. So we've had buzzing, we've had a natural high. You know it can, it can produce that natural high. Addictive. Many of my swimming friends say it is addictive and not, not only from a swimming point of view, you know, that you need a swimming costume. My husband says, you only need a swimming costume to go swimming.

Well, no, you've got to have your toe float and your, and your wetsuit and your nice [00:15:00] dungarees for when you get out. So it can become addictive, not only from a participation point of view, but everything that you buy is swimming orientated. So I used to be a lady that loved handbags. Now I'm a lady that loves bobble hats because I have so many. for every occasion.

Sarah: love that. I love it.

Angie Mills-Cooper: And, you know, the other word that we use when we're getting in the water, if it is really cold, we'll say it's bitey. So can you feel that, you know, is it, is it bitey today? So those were some of the words that, that my, my group came up with. I wanted to sort of touch on the different types of swimming while we're talking about Swimmers High, because like to swim in a group and also I like to swim on my own.

So I get different pleasures from both of those activities. I will try and mix the two up. So I will sneak off for a swim on my own and not post it on the page because Sometimes I want to be on my own and I want to do two miles [00:16:00] around the lake or, or whatever. And that is my time for me and there's no phone and there's no emails and there's nobody shouting at me and there's nobody asking me where something is. That's my time and that's my thinking time. So I like to mix it up and do a little bit of, of both. 

Sarah: That's lovely that there's the opportunity to choose what is it that I need today

Angie Mills-Cooper: yeah,

Sarah: and then choose the activity.

Angie Mills-Cooper: and, you know, I've joined the Bluetits, and I'm very active within the Bluetits and other swimming groups as well, because I like to mix and match the people that I swim with, and you get different things from different people that you swim with as well. But I've continued to challenge myself because, Nobody sits still, do they?

Everybody wants to challenge themselves and that's, you know, I challenge myself to get in the water and then last year I challenged myself. I, I did a very silly thing on, on, I've done a, I've done a swim in London, in the docks. And it's called Dock to [00:17:00] Dock and it's an amazing swim. And I'd come home, I'd got my swimmer's high. as, as we all do, I thought, what can I do next? What can I challenge myself? So I registered myself for a three mile swim down the Thames. Like you

Sarah: Oh my goodness.

Angie Mills-Cooper: So I, I did that last year. I've swum in lots of, lots of different places that I never thought that I would swim in. 

Sarah: Is there a concern about the cleanliness of water? Is there a website you can find clean water to swim?

Organised swims, they do, they test the water anyway. So if, like, Dock to Dock, they will test the water beforehand, and if it's not safe, you're not allowed to get in, because they don't want people to be ill. So, you know, all

The Thames I was thinking of,

Angie Mills-Cooper: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Thames we were told when we got in not to swallow it.

So, you know, there is a little bit of risk involved, but you're not supposed to

Sarah: guess that's part of it though, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, you need to know what you're [00:18:00] doing if you're going somewhere like that.

Angie Mills-Cooper: challenge is Coniston. So I'm, I'm doing five miles in June of this year. It will be the longest swim that I've ever done. I pushed myself last last year to do the three miles, and I trained really hard for that, even practicing eating in the water because some swims you have to get out and get back in again to eat some you have to tread water.

So I've challenged myself t o that I am also doing the UK cold water swimming championships at Tooting Bet Lido at the end of January, which is, a very big challenge for me because this challenge is that you cannot wear any neoprene. So no gloves, no boots, no wetsuit, swimming hat only and swimming costume. So, the temperature could be anything from three to five degrees. It's 30 meters, so it's not going to be you're not going to be in there for long. So by the time you've got in swim, you'll be getting out again. 

Sarah: Yeah, I was going to ask about the [00:19:00] temperature. You know, what kinds of temperature, even in the summer, so when you're saying you're doing events in June, July, I mean, what is the maximum temperature that these cold water swims get to? I mean, they must be still quite cold.

Angie Mills-Cooper: Yeah, well they consider cold water swimming anything sort of below 10 degrees, and that's considered an extreme sport. In the summer, believe it or not, in the summer if I'm doing more than a mile and I'm staying in for a long period of time, will wear a full wetsuit because I just get too cold otherwise. There are some swims if the temperature in the water is above 23, you are not allowed to wear a wetsuit, you have to go in a swimming costume. So it's really heavily regulated when you're doing organised swims. But again

it's very individual. So, you know, what might work for me might not work for you. And you get to know your body. And I know if I'm doing more than a mile, I need to have a wetsuit on, otherwise I can't stay in long enough just because I get cold.

Sarah: I've definitely seen a picture of [00:20:00] you holding ice

Angie Mills-Cooper: Believe it or not, most of my swimming friends chase that type of picture. That is the picture everybody wants. That's what we call the money shot, is that shot holding the ice.

Sarah: Right.

Angie Mills-Cooper: so, so yeah, we've

Sarah: It certainly impressed me. Sounds

Angie Mills-Cooper: drytits as well as wettits. So sometimes people want to come along, but they don't want to get in the water. That's absolutely fine. You can come along and support in other ways. So holding somebody's towel or blowing up their, toe flow or, you know, making them a cup of tea at the end. are all things that we, we value as well, because sometimes when you come out and you're cold, you can't get your gloves off, you can't get your wetsuit off. So it's always really good to have people there that, that, that come to support. And we have some husbands that come and get involved as well and some family members. [00:21:00] But you know, part of the Bluetits is the inclusivity. You know, everybody's got somebody, something to offer. And we encourage that in any way, shape or form that we can. And we do lots of different challenges. At the moment, over the winter, we have, different challenges at different levels.

So, challenge 25 is to swim 25 times between the end of 1st of November and the end of March. We do the same for 50, we do the same for 75 and we do the same for 100. But every swim, I always say is an achievement. You know, what you've been through personally to get there and get yourself in the water you the most amazing person ever. I've made some really brilliant friends and it's not just about the swimming. It's about what happens when you come out of the water and you've got your hot water bottle and you've got your cup of tea and your bacon butty and those chats that you have and the support that we give to each other as individuals. And lost my mum. 18 months ago and my swimming [00:22:00] friends were there for me then and they helped me through that. In fact, I was swimming the day after I lost my mum and I got in the water as I was getting in somebody else was getting out and this lady said to me, oh it's the first time I've been in months, I lost my husband a while ago. And I said to her, well, I've just lost my mum and we stood there for a good 10 minutes, never met each other before, that, it meant the world to me that that lady had shared that with me and I shared something back with her and she was able to comfort me and I could comfort her. So, it's not just about what happens in the water and how that makes you feel, it's about, taking other people on that journey with you and, and, you know, just being nice to each other.

Cause sometimes I think in the world that we live in today, sometimes people aren't that nice. And to include everybody, I think is, is just, Really, really amazing. 

Sarah: Special.

Have you found there's been any specific challenges? You mentioned at the start there was the challenge of [00:23:00] getting in to begin with, based on previous experience. Have you found any other challenges have kind of come along that you've had to beat to keep

doing your swimming?

Angie Mills-Cooper: some, some of my swimming buddies will say it's a challenge every time to get in the water because we all get so foreign and go, why am I doing this? And then we remember why we're doing it. We get in and it's, it's that sort of that feeling of, we know it's going to be good for us. We know we're going to feel amazing when we've done it. Maybe not.

One of the challenges that I have, and it's a current challenge that I have actually, is that I currently swim breaststroke, and I have not yet mastered front crawl. So, although I can swim three miles, I'm swimming three miles breaststroke, and my challenge to myself to, to, to sort out the front crawl make sure that I can do that before I swim Coniston cause five miles swimming breaststroke is, is not going to be

Sarah: Yeah. [00:24:00] Wow.

Angie Mills-Cooper: I think one of the most amazing events that I've been to as a swimmer was in September of last year our group did took part in a 24 hour swim for a charity. And it was teams of eight people and you swim an hour at a time in rotation. So, you have your team, you get to know your team very well because you end up spending that entire 24 hour period with them, and you get to sleep with most of them as well because you're sleeping in rotation as well, and We had a fantastic team leader who got us organised really, really well and made sure that if you're getting out, you stay up for the next hour to look after the next person getting out. So it was such an amazing experience and there were so many stories because there was about 30 different teams there and some people had come a very, very long way to do it. And you're camping there overnight in the middle of a field [00:25:00] all you can hear and see is swimmers and swans. Floats and you know, it was just such an amazing experience that actually we're trying to pull together teams. For this year we're hoping to get two or three teams from the Bluetits together to go and go and do that and support it again, because it was

so amazing to see people's faces and the camaraderie and the support for each other. It was just amazing. You know, you, money can't buy that type of experience and most people have

love to do it again.

Sarah: yeah, what beautiful memories to have as well.

Angie Mills-Cooper: Absolutely.

Sarah: Are there any other events you've had that have been particularly memorable experiences?

Angie Mills-Cooper: I think the first time I swam in the docks in London, I've done, done the same swim twice now. And actually one of the things that I decided to do was to also volunteer at the event as well. So, I mean, you and I both know about volunteering because we've worked at the Commonwealth Games. 

So I volunteered for the first six [00:26:00] hours and then I did my swim. I'd not swum in the docks before or anything like the docks. It had all been lakes and rivers. I didn't realise it was a jump in entry because normally it's either a ladder down or steps in and so

is doing this fantastic, you know, running up to the and dive in and I'm, well, no, I'm going to lower myself in gradually and as I lowered myself in gradually, My head went under the water and I bobbed back up again to see a, a fag butt floating past and a dead duck.

Sarah: Oh, oh my goodness.

Angie Mills-Cooper: that, put that behind me. The other challenge that I have is I don't like, sounds, this sounds bad for somebody that's part of the Bluetits, but I don't actually like birds and things that flap at you.

Sarah: Yeah,

I could imagine when you're at the same level as them, I could imagine that being

Angie Mills-Cooper: panic and I don't, I don't like to feel the fish either. I know they're in there and that's [00:27:00] fine. And they normally do get out of the way they're probably more scared of us than we are of them. But I was at one particular swim called Saxon Mill. few years ago, and it was dusk, it was just getting to about six o'clock, it was just starting to get dark as we got in. And a group of ladies, there were about five or six of us, I was swimming along and a fish or something touched me in the water and I let out a tiny little scream of concern, which then set off the bats. So the bats are flying in between the trees. I'm convinced at this point they're flying at me. And so I'm screaming because the bats are now out and then there's something else touching me.

And then it got into this concerning

Sarah: Oh my goodness,

Angie Mills-Cooper: I need to stop screaming because I'm now setting the bats off more than the fish. So, challenging myself to get over that fear of things touching me in the water. I've, I've

lot of strategies to calm my [00:28:00] mind, and just to Be in the moment and not think about what is necessarily underneath me or below me or around me. Some people like to look but I, I'm fine not looking.

Sarah: Yeah, yeah, fair enough. I'm with you. So if somebody was to think about starting open water swimming or cold water swimming, what would your recommendation be for them to get started?

Angie Mills-Cooper: leave it to a little bit closer to the summer. I have, I have, I have friends that have started in February. One lady in particular who's a true inspiration to me started last February. I met her at the Lido 7. 30 on a Friday morning, and the water temperature was something like 5 degrees, and she said, it's my first swim today, and I thought, you must be mad, but she's absolutely brilliant. and My tips would be go along, meet, meet with a group, watch what they do before you commit. People come along with this, [00:29:00] massive weight on their shoulder that they've got to get straight in. And it's all about, you know, we've got to be seen to be doing it. Come along and watch, see, see what we do, see the tips that we've got. We do some strange things to keep warm, like Like your boots, you have boots that you wear that have got a proper sole on them. you put dog poo bags in them first, to slide them on and off, they come on and off quicker, and your feet stay warmer. there are all these little hints and tips that non open water swimming people wouldn't know about and they can learn from us and, embrace those weird things that we do just to keep, you know, a few degrees warmer, a bit longer and stay in a bit longer. So I would definitely leave it till it's a little bit warmer. Come along. meet a group, join on Facebook go to a local venue, have a look around. There are some fantastic introduction to open water swimming courses that you can go on, which I would highly recommend before you put your toe in the water, so to [00:30:00] speak. You don't have to be a confident swimmer to be an open water swimmer. If you can swim, fine. You know, you can, if you want to stay where it's shallow, you can stay where it's shallow. Most of the venues that we go to will have a map and they will say how far the distance is, which way you're going to swim. They'll have kayakers on the water. If you want to stay in the shallow areas, they can tell you where the shallow areas are. So if I'm going to do a swim and it's somewhere that we've not swum before, would have got in and had a look around and seen, you know, it's step entry, you know, you can stand here. I'd be prepared if I was taking somebody with me somewhere for the first time, but most of the, most of the venues that are paid for venues are excellent with supporting that. And most of them have fantastic areas for tea and coffee afterwards and the odd cake or two, which is what we all love at the end of a swim.

Sarah: Perfect. Yeah. Fantastic. I must, I mean, this has been fascinating, Millie. Thank you so much for this. So

Angie Mills-Cooper: You're

Sarah: to me, I always thought it was all [00:31:00] about the swimming, but actually it's really come across how much more

it is than just the swimming.

Angie Mills-Cooper: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And lifelong friendships have been, you know, have come from this. And we, we do do some random things as well. So my friend and I have both got dinosaur costumes and we'll dress up as dinosaurs occasionally and come out creeping through the lake to make people laugh and things like that.

But for us, it's about having some fun as well and making new friends as well as making sure everybody's safe.

Sarah: Yeah. Fantastic. Well, that's really come across. So thank you so much. Millie's going to give me some links to put in the show notes if anybody wants to find out more. And thank you.

Angie Mills-Cooper: You're very welcome, Sarah. 

 What an incredible insight into the cold waters women community as a wellness practice available to all ages, abilities, and disabilities with multiple benefits. I love how Millie [00:32:00] story reminds us that wellness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up challenging yourself. Embracing unexpected benefits and finding joy in the journey. If Millie can overcome her fear of open water and swim in freezing temperatures. What might you be capable of? As she touched on in the episode outdoor swimming is physically challenging and it carries with it certain risks of personal injury. Please approach cold water swimming responsibly especially when getting started. Select your location carefully and join an experience groups such as the Bluetits. There's links to the Bluetits website and open water swimming advice in the show notes. Until next time I'm Sarah, 

and remember there's many paths to wellness. And sometimes they start with having the courage to take the plunge.

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