00:00 I know people who've had ear infections. I know somebody who had a tummy bug for four or five
00:04 days and it was you know sort of like dysentery type. There's a lot of talk about illness in
00:09 Whitsville. So having thought that coming here would be very good for me in retirement,
00:13 I'm in two minds about it now. Well I moved down here two and a half years ago as I said,
00:18 particularly came down here for the health benefits of cold water swimming and last year in
00:24 January I got Covid and I got something called body temperature dysregulation which was made me
00:32 like I was either freezing cold when it was quite warm or I was boiling hot and sweaty and it was
00:37 really unpleasant. I found that bathing, which I do every day I'm here, was so beneficial. My body
00:43 would get really cold, I would shiv, I'd warm up and then I'd be fine for the rest of the day.
00:48 I like to come every day but of course it's a real issue with the southern water discharges,
00:54 a real issue. I mean everybody is on guard, everybody chats with each other, is it safe
00:59 to bathe today, is it not? No, probably not. And I know people who've had ear infections
01:04 in my group, you know in my swimming group, ear infections. I know somebody who had a tummy bug
01:08 for four or five days and it was you know sort of like dysentery type stuff, really unpleasant.
01:14 And I've, you know, there's a lot of talk about illness in Whitswell. You know when somebody gets
01:19 ill then you get jump here. Yes it's not good for one's mental health because as I said I need to
01:23 swim, I really need to for my immunosuppression. I've got arthritis and I've also got this body
01:29 condition and I need the swims. The benefits of the swimming are really nice for the health,
01:36 you know you feel quite euphoric afterwards and it really is good for the immune system.
01:41 And there are lots of groups of us that meet on the beach here to swim together so there's a lot
01:46 of camaraderie about it too. You know the sea is such a beautiful thing, we used to love watching
01:51 the sun set over the water and now you just look at it and think, oh what's in it today?
01:55 Like I retired here in order to have a healthier life and mental health, physical health,
02:00 and now it's different. I have to be far more careful, I can't just enjoy and love the sea
02:06 like I do. So my partner and I had some kind of recurring stomach ailment and it kept coming and
02:12 going and it wasn't very pleasant, it was very debilitating. We couldn't do the active things
02:17 that we normally do. For about almost a month we were out of action and again it's very hard
02:25 to ascertain what was the cause of it but we do both suspect that it was to do with the sea because
02:30 we both got it the same day just after a spillage. We don't put our heads in the water anymore.
02:36 I was learning to do the crawl and now I don't put my head in the water so it's quite frustrating
02:41 and quite limiting. You know at my age 67 to get poorly like that is not a good thing to do.
02:47 So having thought that coming here would be very good for me in retirement,
02:52 I'm in two minds about it now.
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