From thirty two degrees to just two degrees in under twelve hours; it was a chilly welcome home. On my return from Thailand I headed straight into London wearing a summer dress which was not the brightest idea even after purchasing the thickest tights I could find. It was ironic that I'd been invited onto Simon Mayo's Radio Two drive time show to talk about an upcoming event called the Polar Plunge.
I expect most of you heard about the 'ice bucket challenge'. It saturated the world of social media for the latter months of the summer. You couldn't escape the videos of people throwing a bucket of water over themselves and then publicly challenging their friends. I have to admit I resisted the peer pressure even after being challenged twice; I felt it had lost it's connection to the original concept, become rather pointless and was just too easy. That said, I'm now getting involved in a bigger and better version of this challenge. Allow me to introduce... the Polar Plunge.
The Polar Plunge is the brainchild of the Special Olympics, a charity which helps the intellectually handicapped to compete in sport. Forget a tepid bucket of water; this is on an altogether different scale and involves a container with twenty tons of icy water in which you have to submerge yourself. As if that weren't enough there is another catch - fancy dress is compulsory. As an ambassador I'm struggling to think of ways to excuse myself from this challenge. I wonder if dressing as a deep sea diver or polar explorer would be considered cheating?
