In 2014 Sian Richardson stepped alone into the icy, silky winter waters of Porthsele beach in Pembrokeshire. She shrieked at the cold yet persevered not once but day after day. She’d set herself a cold-water swimming challenge and was determined to complete it, partly because of the recent health troubles that had affected her mobility.
In those days before the explosion of cold-water swimming in the UK Sian was very much an oddity – a sight so unusual that some people were worried she may be suicidal. Just eight years later she is the head of an international movement with more than 100,000 members.
The organisation she founded – The Bluetits Chill Swimmers – began as an informal affiliation before becoming a social enterprise and is now heading for charitable status. Many people credit the Bluetits with changing their lives – and it all began with one determined woman standing in a swimsuit on a wintry beach in Pembrokeshire.
