How it all began...

I was lost in myself, taking drugs and drinking. Not carrying myself as the bloke I saw myself as. I lived my life on social media and not in the real world.

Seeing gym quotes and watching movie scenes I fantasised thinking 'Yeah, i'm like that!' while racking up lines and opening bottles of vodka. Shutting the real world out.

I reached out to Lee Stevens, at first he was a bit off with me, he'd heard it all before. He wouldn't even pick me up for the gym, I was walking some mornings at 03:30am to get there just before 05:00am. I started doing well and then i'd slip up, go back into myself.

Then I found myself going to the Mandem meet up with some Wolverhampton men that I knew. I did a cold water dip and I was hooked. I thought being from Telford I would just use the River Severn. Me and Rash would go and I said 'You know what, I'm getting in'. Then it just became a thing.

I liked the feeling of the cold water, it helped me forget things that were effecting me. I started to go down regularly on my own, some times at 04:30am. Others began to join me then Lee came and that opened the floodgates.

I reached out to Chris Booth, he also came to the river and the three of us would just talk about helping local men. While working on our own individual battles we wanted to make a difference.

Written by Ricky Briffa