Madeleine Waller

I'm a countryside girl, I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Devon and always swam in the sea.  Being in London can be very intense. Swimming in winter in an outdoor pool feels like reconnecting with nature.

"No one taught me how to swim, I just watched other people and got on with it.  I have a few hours off between shifts of driving the bus and I find swimming helps me relax.  The thing about driving in London is that no one seems to care.  Swimming is about taking pride in yourself.  You have to have discipline."

I got into swimming after getting caught up in the tsunami  in Thailand.  I was on a family holiday when the wave came in an d I managed to grab my son from his pram and leg it up a hill.  I looked back and saw the pram disappear.  When I returned home I had a fear of open water so I entered a race in Lake Windermere and my passion for long distance swimming was born."

"My longest swim was the length of Lake Windermere in 8 hours 20 minutes without a break.  Sometimes when I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming of swimming, its happiness."

"As you get older your body is not as useful as it once was.  But if you swim with a good technique its like flying."

I learnt to swim because I went to South Africa and wanted to swim with sharks but they wouldn't let me because I couldn't swim 50 yards.  The water has a cleansing process.  I can let go and totally be me."

"I don't think swimming is a social sport it's something you do on your own. other people are in the pool but they are like objects to negotiate.  It is so methodical doing the same thing every time.  There is a peace in that  that you don't have anywhere else in life."

"I'm really into swimming, its the most accessible means of being in another world.  the first time that I managed to do 50 metres underwater, I turned around and the colours started to change almost like a hallucination.  It was quite beautiful.  Somehow after I swim the existing world seems better."

"My parents broke up when I was 13 and I buried myself in swimming.  I used to swim competitively but I lost my motivation a few years ago.  The outside thoughts were getting in as if the water was flooding into me and I was drowning internally."