Latest / AbersochPodcast / A Big Life Built Around the Sea | Colin Dalton on Swimming, Adventure and Joy

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A Big Life Built Around the Sea | Colin Dalton on Swimming, Adventure and Joy · AbersochPodcast

• 0:08
  Good afternoon. This is the Dunkers Podcast.
• 0:12
  I'm Mark P, affectionately known, so they say, as the Hoth
• 0:16
  here in Abersoch. And today I've got Colin
• 0:19
  Dalton's big Duncan dunking life.
• 0:23
  Yeah, we're going to meet Colin in the moment.
• 0:26
  This is a man with a bigger heart than his chest can handle
• 0:29
  and a spirit that refuses to sit still.
• 0:32
  Because from building water towers in India with Manchester
• 0:35
  City and Xylem to being serenaded by an entire school
• 0:39
  that's the New Hope Orphanage in Kenya on his birthday, Colin
• 0:43
  doesn't just turn up, he lifts others up.
• 0:46
  A former Lloyds Bank pro who swaps spreadsheets for service,
• 0:50
  he's helped orphanages, hospitals, communities and
• 0:54
  schools across the globe, all while finding time for
• 0:57
  marathons, dunking, scuba diving and the odd snow dusted mountain
• 1:02
  bike ride with his wife Claire on 29th of January.
• 1:07
  Apparently it was National Collin Day for all Collins in
• 1:10
  your life, but I'm not sure about that one yet.
• 1:13
  Even a pulmonary embolism in 2024 couldn't keep him down for
• 1:18
  long. He napped, apparently quite a
• 1:20
  lot, then got straight back up to planning his next best big
• 1:24
  thing. Funny, fearless and always first
• 1:27
  in line when helps needed. Colin, to what happens when you
• 1:30
  live life with your sleeves rolled up and your soul soaked
• 1:33
  in purpose? Let's hear from the man himself,
• 1:37
  Colin. Why is why is dunking in your
• 1:40
  life and in your hectic life? What's next?
• 1:45
  OK, so first of all on the dunking, I've always enjoyed
• 1:49
  open water swimming, a kind of competed at triathlon, I enjoyed
• 1:57
  the open water. I find pool swimming deadly
• 2:00
  dull. So competitively I quite enjoyed
• 2:03
  the open water swimming. If I think back to the first
• 2:07
  time I came down to Abersoch, I turned up at 8:00 in the
• 2:10
  morning, I had my rucksack with my wet suit in my gloves, my
• 2:17
  boots, and I'm looking round and everyone else hasn't got a wet
• 2:22
  suit. And I'm kind of like sat left
• 2:24
  and I'm trying to casually put it back in my bag so that no one
• 2:27
  noticed. And I think it was you turn
• 2:29
  around. If you want to wear your wet
• 2:30
  suit, feel free. There's no pressure to do
• 2:33
  anything. But I just, and I think I said
• 2:36
  this to you a couple of days ago, that tingling, that feeling
• 2:40
  you get as you get in the water. I love that.
• 2:44
  Secondly, because I do quite a bit of sport, 10 minutes in the
• 2:49
  water and the cold water is really good for muscle recovery
• 2:53
  and I use an ice bath at home. So when I'm training at home I
• 2:57
  use an ice bath. And I think two years ago that
• 3:01
  was kind of the only thing that really got me to the start of
• 3:03
  the to the start line at the London Marathon.
• 3:07
  So I was really struggling with injury at the time and it was
• 3:09
  probably the only thing that got me to the start line.
• 3:12
  But I just love that tingle as you get in the cold water.
• 3:17
  Yeah, don't always look as if I'm enjoying it, I'm sure.
• 3:20
  So you know it's coming an. Urban dunker as well as an ocean
• 3:23
  dunker. Absolutely.
• 3:25
  You're the. Actually, you're the 1st that
• 3:26
  we've ever had so great. That's, that's good news.
• 3:29
  So do you think that, do you think you're going to keep doing
• 3:33
  it? I mean, presumably you, we, we
• 3:36
  can't get rid of you. You're there every day, which is
• 3:38
  fantastic. So you you're going to keep
• 3:40
  doing it. Definitely.
• 3:41
  I mean, I, it kind of feels, I can't imagine missing it when
• 3:46
  we're down here. So we're up every morning round
• 3:50
  about 6:45, I walk down and it's a two mile walk down and it's
• 3:55
  all part of the morning routine almost for us when we're here.
• 3:59
  So yeah, walk down, chat with everyone.
• 4:02
  Some days I'll go swimming, like this morning we swam out to the
• 4:06
  boats. Other days I'll just float
• 4:08
  around and chat. And yeah.
• 4:11
  Yeah, just just let. Just let the water take you.
• 4:14
  Absolutely. Yeah, it was quite an awesome
• 4:16
  swim this morning. It must have been what, 1000
• 4:17
  metres out up to the to the moorings and back.
• 4:20
  Yeah, it was 1000 metres and whilst it looked flat when we
• 4:24
  were stood on the beach, it definitely wasn't when you got
• 4:26
  out there. I think I swallowed more
• 4:27
  seawater today than I have in a long time.
• 4:30
  Yeah. So is that ever a problem?
• 4:32
  I mean literally swallowing seawater, Is that a problem when
• 4:35
  you're in competitions? I always think when so I've done
• 4:40
  the triathlon down at Abersoch a few times and it's kind of
• 4:44
  there's an awful lot of people that just train in pools.
• 4:47
  Right, right. So it.
• 4:48
  Kind of gives me a bit of a head start.
• 4:50
  I always feel. We did it one year here and it
• 4:53
  was quite choppy and those people struggling to get out to
• 4:56
  the first boy. But if you know the conditions
• 4:59
  and you're used to it, a lot of it's just about remaining calm,
• 5:03
  trying to spot when you're not going to get hit by a wave.
• 5:06
  Or another competitor? Or another competitor.
• 5:10
  But yeah, spot when you're not going to get hit by a wave.
• 5:13
  And even this morning it was kind of like you'd look over
• 5:15
  your shoulder as you're swimming and go, actually, that's a wave
• 5:18
  about to hit me. I won't breathe this time.
• 5:20
  I'll wait till the next stroke. That is pretty disciplined.
• 5:24
  Yeah, I think a lot of it's just remaining calm.
• 5:26
  Yeah. And just, you know, if you do it
• 5:29
  often enough. Yeah, as you say, if you've spun
• 5:32
  for such a long time, and I guess that's the same attitude
• 5:35
  that you have to take to a triathlon because it's
• 5:38
  triathlons are not easy, easy peasy, are they?
• 5:41
  No. And I mean I've never done an
• 5:43
  Iron Man. I've done quite a lot of half
• 5:45
  distance, like our middle distance they call them and I've
• 5:49
  done Olympics and standard or Sprint I think they're called.
• 5:55
  And yeah, it just, you learn every time you do one it kind
• 5:58
  of, you know, the times it's taking you 2 minutes in
• 6:01
  transition because you're faffing around putting your
• 6:04
  socks on and you just gradually learn and.
• 6:08
  Yeah, yeah. And that faffing around really
• 6:10
  that sort of comes back to as you we started today and that is
• 6:14
  about the wet suit and the shoes and the the gloves.
• 6:17
  And whilst you need them in the depth of winter, it's a faff if
• 6:21
  you try and use anything other than just gloves and boots.
• 6:25
  Yeah, I mean, for the triathlons you wouldn't typically use boots
• 6:30
  and gloves, but I think British triathlon the then ruled out
• 6:35
  anyway. But generally most people will
• 6:38
  swim in a wetsuit just because it makes you so much quicker.
• 6:41
  So it adds a degree of buoyancy, so it keeps your level in the
• 6:44
  water, which is what you're always striving for, and you
• 6:48
  just glide through the water so much quicker.
• 6:51
  Right, so you don't, you don't have to shave yourself every
• 6:54
  time you do a triathlon. No.
• 6:56
  Oh good, there you go. That's good news.
• 6:57
  Claire will be happy. Yeah.
• 6:59
  So just OK, just a quick one back because most of the people
• 7:04
  that we've spoken to on the Dunkers podcast have really,
• 7:09
  really focused down on the community and the post dunking
• 7:13
  and pre dunking routines. Now you've obviously got a pre
• 7:16
  dunking routine. You're up at 7:15 quarter to
• 7:19
  seven and and as you say, you get down there for 8:00-ish.
• 7:22
  So what's your post? What's your post dunk routine?
• 7:27
  I guess and and this comes back to some of the community and the
• 7:30
  social side of it. So after along with many of the
• 7:35
  other dunkers, I woke up to the groin on the beach.
• 7:39
  I generally say hello to Jeff if I've not done already on the way
• 7:42
  down, come back, and then I have a cup of tea.
• 7:46
  And usually, although I'm trying to kick this habit, I usually
• 7:49
  have a sausage sandwich each morning at Footprints Cafe and
• 7:53
  just sit there and, you know, on a nice day like it was this
• 7:57
  morning. Yeah, Sitting there just
• 7:58
  chatting away with whoever's there.
• 8:00
  And there was, you know, typically there's 10 dunkers
• 8:02
  there each morning. Yeah.
• 8:04
  So that whole feeling of being part of a community and being so
• 8:08
  we don't obviously don't live here, but it kind of feels like
• 8:10
  we almost do because we know so many people through the dunkers,
• 8:13
  really. Yeah, yeah.
• 8:15
  Do you know anybody back at home that does cold water dunking
• 8:19
  like you do in the. I presume you've got one of
• 8:22
  these big dips that. Have.
• 8:23
  Yeah, yeah, I've got the Brown's called Lumi, OK.
• 8:27
  And we've got a chiller attached to it.
• 8:28
  OK, so we have that. Tell me that gets down to about
• 8:32
  two or three degrees. You can set it to whatever you
• 8:34
  want. I generally set it to 8°.
• 8:36
  Oh, right. You feeling, Both of you, Yeah.
• 8:39
  But there's, there's a guy, I mean, there's all sorts of
• 8:42
  people that I go open water swimming with.
• 8:45
  There's a guy that he's a triathlete.
• 8:48
  He's and he's a triathlon coach and he's a guy called Phil
• 8:53
  Ellison and he is an advocate for cold water dipping.
• 8:57
  So he goes into companies and talks about it and all the rest
• 8:59
  of it. And each year on Christmas Eve,
• 9:02
  generally we meet up at Picknell Lake.
• 9:04
  We've even had it where we've had to, you know, knock holes in
• 9:08
  the ice to get in and we'll go in and it might only be 2-3
• 9:11
  minutes, but each year we kind of go and do that.
• 9:15
  And he's been a big advocate and a big encouragement for the
• 9:18
  whole open water piece, so. You're now, we can now call you
• 9:23
  our own Abbasop, dunkers, Wim Hof.
• 9:26
  If you're breaking ice, yeah, that's great.
• 9:28
  Yeah, yeah. We've only done that a couple of
• 9:30
  times, but yeah. Look, if you've done it, you've
• 9:32
  done it. That's that's amazing.
• 9:34
  I do know that only because of sort of, I've dug in a little
• 9:38
  bit, I do know that that swimming and health and fitness
• 9:42
  really is quite a sort of central part to your life.
• 9:44
  And because you've been doing this even while you were
• 9:47
  working, that work just got in the way, I take it.
• 9:51
  We were talking about this the other day and it was kind of I
• 9:55
  had to my whole day. Every day was like a military
• 9:58
  operation in that I knew all the training I needed to do in the
• 10:01
  week. I knew where I was working and
• 10:05
  you know, likely stupid I was, I was likely to be doing and I'd
• 10:10
  plan out the week minute by minute almost.
• 10:13
  So it's like, right, I've got half an hour, I can go for a
• 10:15
  run. I need to do an hour and a half
• 10:18
  on the bike, right. I'll need to be up at six O
• 10:20
  clock and I'll do it in the garage on one of the turbo
• 10:22
  trainers. And it was compartmentalized
• 10:26
  like that. And we always had a rule that
• 10:28
  said at 9:00 each night, Claire and I had sit down.
• 10:32
  I was going to say, who's we that had this rule, you and
• 10:35
  Claire? Yeah, yeah.
• 10:36
  And we'd sit down at 9:00 each night and watch something, OK.
• 10:39
  And it might only be 20 minutes before we sort of felt shattered
• 10:43
  into bed, but that was kind of like the cut off point when
• 10:47
  anything else had to stop and we were done.
• 10:50
  And Claire is just as active in this routine and this structure.
• 10:54
  And and we had that structure, yes, I guess he's slightly
• 10:59
  different this year as we're, we're no longer working right
• 11:04
  and I'm not sure we've necessarily struck a routine or
• 11:06
  whether we're going to strike into a routine and whether we
• 11:10
  need to but. You just let it roll, don't you?
• 11:13
  Yeah, yeah. See how it goes.
• 11:14
  So talking and letting it roll. I said in my opening about
• 11:17
  because I've done a bit of digging and found about the The
• 11:21
  New Hope. Tell me about that because that
• 11:24
  really sort of fascinated me about what what you know,
• 11:27
  because you were out building in India.
• 11:30
  Was it? Was it Xylem?
• 11:32
  India was with Manchester City and Xylem and there was about
• 11:36
  two or three other charity partners, so that was something
• 11:39
  I did through Manchester City. Oh, right, OK, you are you a
• 11:42
  Manchester City? You're obviously you're a blue
• 11:45
  for. Life.
• 11:45
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And they had a competition for
• 11:48
  what they called community heroes.
• 11:50
  OK, so they were looking for people from across the globe who
• 11:54
  were involved in charitable stuff.
• 11:57
  OK so I used New Hope as the example and got selected and
• 12:01
  they flew us out to Bangalore and we built water towers at 2
• 12:05
  schools which was just an amazing experience.
• 12:09
  How long did that take you? We no, no, no.
• 12:11
  It was we were done within. We were there a week and we did
• 12:17
  because they were like scaffold towers.
• 12:19
  Right, OK. All the gear was there already.
• 12:22
  We had people from Xylem and I'm trying to think Planet Water I
• 12:28
  think was the other charity that we're sort of big in on this.
• 12:31
  Right, so we were. Everything was there, all preps,
• 12:36
  and we were sort of like just putting everything together and
• 12:38
  doing the plumbing and getting it all ready.
• 12:41
  And it was magical just to see the children.
• 12:42
  So I worked in India quite a lot.
• 12:44
  OK, OK. When you were with Lloyd?
• 12:47
  Well, at Barclays and at Lloyds. Oh, right.
• 12:50
  OK. So I worked there for, I'd be
• 12:54
  there for like 2-3 times a year, but always you kind of flying to
• 12:58
  the airport, you get picked up, you get taken to a hotel, you
• 13:01
  get taken to an office and kind of you don't see the country at
• 13:04
  all. So this was really nice because
• 13:07
  you got to actually meet. Right.
• 13:09
  Absolutely, yeah, because I suppose you were to the part of
• 13:12
  this offshoring, were you? Yeah, yeah.
• 13:14
  The outsourcing of the IT and stuff like some of it was out
• 13:17
  centres and stuff. Some of it was outsourcing, some
• 13:21
  of it was setting up our own capability out there.
• 13:24
  OK. So, you know, there's different
• 13:27
  models, Yeah, they help boring people about all the different.
• 13:32
  Models they were, but yeah, it gave you the opportunity then to
• 13:35
  sort of go to the left field a little bit.
• 13:37
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Starting building water towers.
• 13:40
  Actually, the speed that this hotel has been built in Avatar,
• 13:43
  we need people who can build things quick because that ain't
• 13:46
  going to go up fast. It's supposed to open about the
• 13:48
  beginning of end of March or the beginning of April or something.
• 13:51
  So I think they're struggling on.
• 13:53
  Yeah, we drove past it on the way here and I think it's gone
• 13:56
  wild, Yeah. Like it is so tell me New Hope.
• 14:01
  I mean, you know, how do you how do you get a school in Kenya to
• 14:04
  sing you happy birthday? That's pretty cool that Carl so.
• 14:09
  We've been involved, so Claire and I have been involved with
• 14:12
  New Hope since 2007. Right.
• 14:16
  It was a group at Barclays and someone who I worked with, she
• 14:21
  introduced me to it. So she'd won.
• 14:24
  There was these chairman's charity awards and she'd won
• 14:27
  some charity award for work she did in Wigan.
• 14:30
  Right. She went to the charity awards
• 14:33
  in London and met the international winner who was
• 14:36
  Anne Chege, who founded New Hope.
• 14:39
  So she came back and she goes to me.
• 14:41
  We've got to do something. They don't know where the next
• 14:43
  meals coming from. At this point that I think there
• 14:46
  was 20 children at New Hope and she's like, they don't know
• 14:50
  what, where the next meal is coming from.
• 14:51
  They're struggling for clothes. Education is obviously the thing
• 14:54
  that's always going to break the cycle of poverty.
• 14:57
  And at that point I'd I'd done, I think the Great North Run and
• 15:02
  I'd done that for Guide Dogs for the Blind or something, or RNIB.
• 15:07
  I'd done something for Care International, the Three peaks
• 15:09
  challenges. And it kind of came at a time
• 15:12
  where, because I like to challenge myself physically and
• 15:16
  I like to then sort of do it for the benefit of something, it
• 15:19
  kind of came at the right time. So we organised a marathon team
• 15:23
  because they needed an orphanage building.
• 15:25
  OK, right. So we we did Amsterdam Marathon
• 15:30
  in 2007 and raised £12,000 to build the original orphanage.
• 15:35
  That's impressive. And then I don't know, I kind of
• 15:39
  seem to have fallen into lead fundraiser.
• 15:42
  So we have a whole. Whole Lead fundraiser.
• 15:45
  Or the lead fundraiser. So if you kind of like, you
• 15:48
  know, we have a, we're a support group and we funnel all our
• 15:51
  money through a charity. So whilst we're not got full
• 15:54
  charity status, we're a support group.
• 15:58
  We do put everything through a charity.
• 15:59
  And then the reasons for that, you know, well, the second you
• 16:02
  register as a charity, you've got overheads, you've got costs
• 16:05
  and all the rest of it. Absolutely.
• 16:07
  So every penny that we raise goes to New Hope.
• 16:10
  OK. So it's kind of there's no, you
• 16:13
  know, you've done £80.30 of it ends up at you donate pound and
• 16:18
  a pound goes. Brilliant.
• 16:20
  So when you see that on adverts, there is actually some truth
• 16:23
  behind that. Some of these these charities,
• 16:26
  if they say every penny goes out there, it actually probably
• 16:29
  does. Is there a caveat here?
• 16:32
  Well. No, no, no.
• 16:33
  I'm not sure I've seen many adverts on the television
• 16:36
  because so the fact that they're spending it on advertising and
• 16:40
  all the rest of it. Good point.
• 16:41
  Yeah, good point. They've got costs associated
• 16:44
  with it and, you know, some of the really big charities have
• 16:47
  got some real big challenges and they do some fantastic work.
• 16:49
  So it's not to belittle anything that they do, because everyone's
• 16:53
  trying to achieve the same things ultimately.
• 16:55
  But yeah, everyone that's involved in New Hope is a
• 16:58
  volunteer. We have no overheads at all and
• 17:02
  everything we do, like, say, every single penny goes to
• 17:06
  there. Yeah, that's brilliant.
• 17:08
  So, OK, so you're a man who likes to do things for purpose.
• 17:13
  You do them and you don't mind suffering, running triathlons,
• 17:19
  whatever. But the outcome is the fact that
• 17:23
  it's a community thing. There's a bit, there's a bit of
• 17:26
  a thread going through here because you've got a community
• 17:28
  down here and you've got a community there.
• 17:30
  And no doubt in the interim, sort of 20 years, you've
• 17:33
  probably got communities all over the place, haven't you?
• 17:36
  Yeah. But so, OK, So what are you
• 17:39
  going to punish yourself to do next?
• 17:41
  Because I do. Somebody told me about a new
• 17:44
  roof. Is there a new roof in the
• 17:45
  offing? Yeah, so we've 2007, we built
• 17:51
  the orphanage, right? And since then we've added a
• 17:53
  mother and baby unit because these problems are problems.
• 17:59
  Young girls get pregnant. Yeah, same as anywhere.
• 18:03
  And you end up with we, we trained a few nurses and they
• 18:08
  were getting an approach to see if they could perform abortions
• 18:11
  on these girls. It's kind of like if we can give
• 18:13
  them an option whereby the children can be looked after,
• 18:17
  they can complete their education again, you can drive a
• 18:20
  different outcome. So we built the mother and baby
• 18:23
  unit. We've also built up all his
• 18:25
  dormitory. And since then we've expanded
• 18:27
  and we've got the whole school there now, and we're currently
• 18:30
  building a computer lab. Right.
• 18:32
  Now. Just insert a setting.
• 18:34
  There must be more than 20 kids now.
• 18:36
  There's typically 120. Wow.
• 18:39
  Gosh, kids. There at any one time and we've
• 18:43
  got about 250 children at the school registered.
• 18:49
  Do they register? I'm trying to think, I've got no
• 18:51
  idea whether they register with 250 children, turn up every day.
• 18:55
  And we kind of, you know, we have schemes to fund teachers
• 18:59
  and different events that happen to do that.
• 19:01
  OK. So he's kind of.
• 19:03
  Yeah, I've got no idea whether they register or.
• 19:06
  Not it doesn't really matter does it?
• 19:07
  If the kids turn up then the attendance is 9 points of the
• 19:11
  law isn't. It absolutely and then you know,
• 19:13
  we also because some of the kids will be coming from fairly very
• 19:18
  poor backgrounds and all the rest of it, it might be the only
• 19:21
  meal to get that day and. OK.
• 19:23
  OK. So it's the it's the full gamut.
• 19:25
  Once they get within new, new, new, new world, then then it's
• 19:31
  they just looked after all the way through until they leave.
• 19:34
  Yeah. And we try.
• 19:37
  So we built 2 villages as well. I should have probably mentioned
• 19:40
  that. Yeah, right.
• 19:41
  So there's something like 65 houses there.
• 19:44
  OK. But again, we found people
• 19:47
  trying to give up their children because they knew they'd get a
• 19:50
  better education and potentially a better future if they went to
• 19:54
  New Hope, because at that point we were funding all the
• 19:57
  education. By building the houses in the
• 20:01
  villages, you can keep families together.
• 20:04
  OK, OK. So the children can still
• 20:06
  benefit from the education, but they can live with their parents
• 20:09
  or their grandparents or whoever it might be, whichever family
• 20:12
  member. So yeah, that's been a big, big
• 20:16
  thing for us and. Have you had to sort of look
• 20:18
  after basic things like water and electricity and stuff that
• 20:22
  makes villages work? Yes.
• 20:25
  Yeah, I guessed. So if I think back 2007, we put
• 20:31
  a borehole in to get the water. We've connected electricity not
• 20:37
  just to New Hope, but to the surrounding community in the
• 20:42
  Grannies Villages. We call them the Grannies
• 20:45
  Villages because most of the people there are grandmothers.
• 20:48
  OK, OK. As opposed to, I mean, there's
• 20:51
  the odd granddad. Right.
• 20:53
  There's a lot of children lost their parents and obviously HIV
• 20:56
  is a major part of that. Still not at the moment.
• 21:03
  So they get the drugs, obviously without getting political.
• 21:06
  Mr. Trump has stopped certain parts of USA.
• 21:10
  It's not impacting us at the moment, but it's one of those
• 21:12
  things we're keeping an eye on. But we've got these grandparents
• 21:16
  villages and each year, so we raised extra money.
• 21:22
  When we did the Hadrian's Wall challenge, which was walking
• 21:25
  from one side of the country to the other in three days, we
• 21:28
  raised extra money. So we paid for the water to be
• 21:30
  kept on for another year. OK.
• 21:32
  Someone's just done Kilimanjaro and raised more than they
• 21:35
  expected. That's brave, yeah.
• 21:37
  So we've managed to raise again enough to keep the water on for
• 21:41
  another year. So now it's a it's a roof.
• 21:44
  So the next thing is a roof. And how are you?
• 21:46
  You did ask me. About that a while ago, didn't
• 21:47
  you? Yeah.
• 21:48
  Yeah, yeah. No, but I'm interested.
• 21:50
  I'm interested. I'm sure my listener will be
• 21:51
  interested or our listener will sort of say, oh, I can relate to
• 21:54
  that, No. So where's the roof?
• 21:56
  How are you going to get this roof?
• 21:58
  So yeah, we built the original orphanage in 2007.
• 22:01
  You know, roll forward 18 years, it's got a tin roof on it.
• 22:05
  It leaks everywhere. So when it rains, which
• 22:08
  mercifully isn't often, but when it does my does it rain if it
• 22:14
  leaks? So we need to put a proper roof
• 22:17
  on it. So for the 120 children that are
• 22:19
  resident there, plus the 250 that attend school there, we
• 22:23
  need to put a roof on it. Estimates are that to do it
• 22:27
  properly is going to cost us 15,000.
• 22:30
  So we've kind of been looking at opportunities and one of the
• 22:35
  ideas that we've been sort of knocking around is the
• 22:37
  Manchester Marathon next year, which I think takes place around
• 22:40
  about the 19th of April. OK.
• 22:43
  Now if we managed to get 30 people to do the Manchester
• 22:45
  Marathon and they are raised to £500 each, yeah. 15,015 grand
• 22:50
  Yeah. So whether we get 30 or not, who
• 22:53
  knows? We've got a few volunteers
• 22:55
  already, so I think we're getting close to 10.
• 22:58
  Nice. OK.
• 23:01
  So that's a fantastic start. Yeah, we kind of put in sort of
• 23:07
  we, we do a regular newsletter, which I don't know if you've
• 23:09
  seen. I haven't, no.
• 23:11
  But the newsletter, we put a play out to a lot of our
• 23:14
  supporters to say if you have any ideas, because we're always
• 23:19
  open to ideas. It doesn't have to be the
• 23:20
  Manchester Marathon. If people want to do different
• 23:23
  things or different challenges or have some ideas as to ways to
• 23:27
  raise money, we're always all ears.
• 23:30
  That's sort of the next big thing.
• 23:33
  And in the background, obviously, we have to keep, it
• 23:35
  costs US 35,000 a year roughly just to keep the thing running.
• 23:39
  Right to. Provide the education cost.
• 23:42
  So it's like a twin track here. It's just sort of continual
• 23:46
  maintenance costs and and then you've got your specials, which
• 23:50
  as you say, roofs after 20 years do tend to disintegrate.
• 23:54
  But it's a bit like it's, you know, from my sort of
• 23:58
  perspective, it's a bit like your life.
• 24:00
  It's twin track because not only do you do marathons and you come
• 24:04
  dunking, but you're going to do the Hurley burly is it, which is
• 24:08
  a which is a mega swim in September, so.
• 24:11
  Yeah, I keep feeling I might need to start training.
• 24:15
  Look, you started this morning. Put that down.
• 24:18
  Tick in the box, tick in the box.
• 24:20
  And yeah, I suppose if you can just get some, some sponsorship
• 24:24
  for your half marathons and your 10 KS and stuff like that,
• 24:27
  that'd be really cool. Because this, I know the 10K
• 24:31
  down here last weekend was just steaming.
• 24:33
  There was 1300 people or something unbelievable that that
• 24:37
  took part in it. So there was. 55 dunkers.
• 24:40
  I think so there was yes yeah. Andy, myself, Amy, Anna and
• 24:48
  someone else who I've forgotten. Well, I know Lauren and Dave.
• 24:51
  Simon. Yeah, it's Simon.
• 24:53
  Yeah. And Lauren and Dave took part of
• 24:55
  those sort of seven associated with junk.
• 24:58
  Yeah. So.
• 25:00
  Well, I mean, The thing is that. So what do people do in a word?
• 25:03
  Do they just reach out to you and say, look like, like what
• 25:06
  you're doing with New Hope want to give you some sponsorship?
• 25:10
  How did they do that, Colin? So I guess reach out to me.
• 25:14
  Definitely. There's a number of ways that we
• 25:16
  raise money. We talked about the Manchester
• 25:19
  Marathon as an idea. At the moment the entries aren't
• 25:21
  open. We also have regular sponsorship
• 25:26
  packages where you sponsor a child and their education and
• 25:29
  that's £7.50 a month. OK, so when we go out to Kenya,
• 25:33
  yeah, which again all self funded and all the rest of it.
• 25:36
  So again, it's kind of. I wonder whether it was.
• 25:38
  Yeah, yeah. But.
• 25:39
  When we go out to Kenya, we get updates from all the children.
• 25:42
  We take photos, find out how they're doing with their
• 25:45
  education and share that with sponsors.
• 25:47
  OK, Yeah. We also have a family
• 25:49
  sponsorship piece which is £10 which that enables us to buy
• 25:55
  rice and oil and just some of the essentials to make sure
• 26:00
  they've got some food for that month.
• 26:02
  It's not. Everything.
• 26:03
  No, no, then but. But it kind of.
• 26:05
  Like, yeah, yeah, every, every meal is a is a is a meal towards
• 26:10
  Yeah. Yeah, and that's £10 a month.
• 26:13
  And where did they get hold of that, those details, where did
• 26:15
  they get hold of that sponsorship?
• 26:17
  Contact me on Facebook or I can share e-mail addresses or.
• 26:23
  So it's just Colin Dalton on Facebook.
• 26:25
  Yeah. Dalton.
• 26:26
  Yeah. OK, that's.
• 26:29
  Yeah. And then the other one that we
• 26:30
  sort of tend to target more at corporates is or schools is a
• 26:35
  particular good been particularly good for us.
• 26:40
  It's been the teacher sponsorship.
• 26:43
  So a teacher's salaries typically it depends on the
• 26:45
  exchange rate between 1500 and £2000 a year.
• 26:50
  Goodness. And we've had, yeah, well,
• 26:53
  goodness. And that kind of gives you a
• 26:54
  clue as to the cost of living out there.
• 26:57
  So we've been doing lots there and we've had quite a few
• 27:00
  successes with that with schools in particular.
• 27:03
  We've also had a few companies and as I always think my saying
• 27:07
  is every no was closer to a yes. So everyone I ask and that's.
• 27:11
  Good. It's good.
• 27:13
  But Anne, who runs New Hope and Chege always, she came round on
• 27:17
  a few visits the last time she was here and she stayed with us
• 27:20
  and she said, Colin, all we're doing is planting seeds and some
• 27:23
  of those seeds will grow on, some won't.
• 27:25
  Yeah. And I quite like that.
• 27:26
  Yeah. Kind of like it feels less
• 27:28
  negative than every nose. Closer to a yes.
• 27:30
  Absolutely, absolutely. And that's what really, that's
• 27:32
  what hopefully will come out of what we're talking about this
• 27:35
  afternoon is the fact that, you know, it's planting seeds and
• 27:39
  somebody really wants to get involved.
• 27:41
  They can get involved by actually doing an event and and,
• 27:45
  you know, running alongside you metaphorically or physically.
• 27:48
  Yeah. And and if they they can't, they
• 27:51
  haven't got that in them. But they still sort of believe
• 27:54
  that this is the right way, right thing to do, then they can
• 27:57
  do some sponsorship. Yeah.
• 27:58
  Yeah. So.
• 28:00
  Any help is always greatly appreciated.
• 28:02
  And you do get to hear back from New Hope.
• 28:05
  We have a regular newsletter if someone's out there to get
• 28:08
  updates that we share. And yeah, he kind of, he kind of
• 28:12
  like feels quite personal. So we've, I mean, I don't know
• 28:15
  how many children we've sponsored over the years, but
• 28:17
  the first one was someone called Amos.
• 28:20
  He's now a qualified plumber and making his way in life.
• 28:25
  And which is just when you see them sort of emerge the other
• 28:29
  end. It's gratifying, yeah.
• 28:31
  Absolutely. And it kind of, you know, not
• 28:33
  everyone grasps the opportunities that you're giving
• 28:35
  them. No, but.
• 28:37
  Which is to be the same in any walk of life, isn't it?
• 28:39
  Doesn't it? And let's face it, Amos isn't
• 28:41
  going to be upstairs by AI in the near future.
• 28:44
  Absolutely. If he's a bloomer, then that's
• 28:47
  the sort of skill set that is needed out there.
• 28:50
  Yeah, and I mentioned to you the computer lab.
• 28:52
  Yeah, I mean, we managed to get a donation from a charitable
• 28:56
  foundation, so we're building a computer lab and there's only a
• 29:02
  few schools in Nairobi got computer labs.
• 29:05
  So again, in terms of differentiating and giving our
• 29:09
  students the best opportunity to get a job at the end of it and
• 29:13
  sort of embrace the technology, it's just such a massive, it
• 29:19
  could be one of the big game changes.
• 29:20
  Absolutely, because it's all they, they, they'll, let's face
• 29:23
  it, they're, you know, whichever part of the world you come from,
• 29:26
  you, you start off at a fairly level playing field.
• 29:29
  It's about finding that edge and just pushing the edge just a bit
• 29:32
  further to, to sort of stay in front.
• 29:34
  Isn't it exactly the same way that that you run and bringing
• 29:37
  it back the the same way that we don't because it gives us that
• 29:41
  edge? As you said at the beginning of
• 29:42
  the the interview, it's a case of in the morning, you feel as
• 29:46
  though you've got an edge. You've got, you can do the days.
• 29:50
  We I've had a podcast this morning and they said the great
• 29:54
  thing is that we can come down and by 9:00 we've absolutely
• 29:58
  done something. We've done 4000 steps.
• 30:01
  We've met with people, you know, we might have got called.
• 30:04
  That's cool. That's, that's what it's all
• 30:06
  about. But we've, you know, and usually
• 30:09
  they've had a laugh, but the fact is it's about that edge.
• 30:13
  And so we're always, I guess we're always looking for it.
• 30:16
  We're always looking for it. So, so the, the thing that sort
• 30:20
  of struck me when you agreed to, to, to chat to us was I thought
• 30:25
  to myself, well, who is Colin Dalton, who, you know, are you a
• 30:30
  charity man or are you a businessman that's managed to
• 30:33
  sort of get throw, throw the, the morass of, of business life
• 30:37
  away and, and just having a bit more freedom.
• 30:41
  It's. Yeah, Oh.
• 30:44
  Big question, I know. I kind of, it's kind of one of
• 30:49
  those questions. I'd probably be interesting to
• 30:52
  know what Claire thought. But my sort of it was I always
• 30:57
  had a number of streams. So there was like sport.
• 31:01
  There's always been sort of a reasonable part of my life.
• 31:03
  Probably more since I was 40. I played football, but I think I
• 31:10
  was, I'll, I'll say lovingly referred to as big Collar back
• 31:13
  in those days. Big Yeah, I was a good few stone
• 31:17
  heavier than I am now. But you played competitively.
• 31:21
  Yeah, yeah, I stopped playing. I mean, I stopped playing
• 31:25
  competitively when I was around about 40 ish.
• 31:27
  Yeah, yeah. But I carried on playing with my
• 31:30
  friends and then stopped full stop at 50.
• 31:35
  I've still the. Reason being.
• 31:37
  I was doing more triathlons. I was just permanently injured
• 31:41
  from football so. Not, not, not a middle-aged
• 31:45
  man's game. No, not really.
• 31:48
  So I'd I'd say the sport was always a big part work.
• 31:52
  I was tremendously driven at work and kind of, you know, I
• 31:57
  had all those aspirations. At one point I was going to be
• 31:59
  chief operating officer. One of the big banks didn't work
• 32:03
  out like that. But I can't complain.
• 32:07
  Didn't you? People do like that.
• 32:11
  Because I think. It would be stressful.
• 32:12
  Yeah, I think it would become all consuming.
• 32:15
  And there were times when work did become all consuming.
• 32:19
  But I just think I had the sport.
• 32:22
  I had New Hope, had the family, so Claire, Matthew and Ben, and
• 32:29
  then obviously, yeah. Yeah.
• 32:32
  And Matthew and Ben, are they, do they sort of empathize with
• 32:35
  what you're doing with New Hope? And so because I think they're
• 32:39
  both sporty, aren't they? Yeah, yeah, they're both, they
• 32:42
  both love playing football, so I think they get that from Claire,
• 32:48
  so and they are both sporty and all the rest of it.
• 32:51
  We took them for the first time and I guess, I'm guessing at
• 32:55
  their ages now, they'd have probably been 10 and eight the
• 32:58
  first time we took them. And we took them on safari as
• 33:02
  well as staying at New Hope. And it was like, kids, this is,
• 33:07
  you know, big money. This is a holiday of a lifetime.
• 33:10
  We won't be doing this again. I think they've been back four
• 33:12
  times so far. And then the last time was
• 33:15
  probably really gratifying, actually, because Matt was 21
• 33:21
  and Ben was 18. And we said, what do you want to
• 33:23
  do for you? Choose a holiday and we'll we'll
• 33:27
  go and do it as a family. And they both went.
• 33:29
  We want to go to Kenya. Wow.
• 33:31
  So for their 21st and 18th birthdays, they spent four
• 33:35
  nights sleeping in an orphanage in Kenya.
• 33:39
  And it was. Yeah.
• 33:40
  I mean, they love it. It's a magical, magical place.
• 33:43
  You kind of. There's some horrific tales of
• 33:46
  things people have endured, but it's the happiest place you'll
• 33:49
  ever imagine. Really.
• 33:50
  Yeah, yeah, exactly. Obviously.
• 33:52
  So I can tell just by the way that you recounting these
• 33:54
  stories and from the boys just, you know what you meant for
• 33:58
  them. Four days and you know, exposed
• 34:01
  like that and yeah, they keep going back.
• 34:03
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 34:04
  Hasn't got them off. And that's one of those that
• 34:06
  signed up to the marathon. Oh, there you go.
• 34:09
  So. I think Ben would do, but he's
• 34:11
  got the end. He's like degree finals.
• 34:14
  So, OK, we've sort of said to you need to think about where
• 34:18
  your privacy. Do they matter when it comes to
• 34:20
  a new roof? Because no, sorry, I'm being
• 34:25
  really scholastic. If you want to take over his
• 34:28
  fees, yeah. No, you just keep going to
• 34:33
  school. Yeah, you just keep studying.
• 34:36
  Yeah. So, but it's great that they're
• 34:38
  going to, they're following. They've got that interest.
• 34:40
  Absolutely. And Matt, well, both of them
• 34:42
  have done, I mean, they both did the overnight Channel swim
• 34:46
  challenge. We did.
• 34:48
  Matt's done the Hadrian's Wall walk last year.
• 34:52
  So yeah, yeah, they both supported it.
• 34:54
  They're into it, aren't they, In a big way.
• 34:57
  And also, you know, all three, like Claire, Matt and Ben
• 35:00
  whenever I come up with my latest stupid idea.
• 35:03
  Yeah. Which is generally how it's
• 35:04
  described. Okay, yeah, it always starts off
• 35:07
  on that foot. Yeah, and it's just gotta roll
• 35:10
  it along a bit. Absolutely believe the support,
• 35:13
  et cetera, because obviously like marathons just take over
• 35:16
  your life in terms of the training.
• 35:17
  Yeah. And I'm trying to forget that at
• 35:19
  the moment whilst we're in ideas stage, but it does take over
• 35:23
  your. He's got to, he's got to because
• 35:24
  you don't you, you sort of, you don't do what you're capable of
• 35:28
  doing. You don't deliver what you think
• 35:30
  you're capable of. So.
• 35:32
  And it's kind of like a long run on a Saturday, 4 hours, and then
• 35:35
  you come back and fall asleep. Yeah.
• 35:37
  Yeah, yeah, yes. So Claire, there's a lot of
• 35:40
  shopping, I take it because you're always out.
• 35:44
  Yeah. I think we both sort of do,
• 35:47
  yeah, Hopefully we both do our fair share.
• 35:49
  Yeah, yeah. Well, I know that Claire comes
• 35:51
  dunking in the morning and she's got a unique and own way of
• 35:56
  getting in and just studying it. And you know, when I'm ready,
• 35:59
  I'm ready and that's good. Just a final one on that with
• 36:02
  the boys go in dunking. And they've both been down here.
• 36:06
  Have they both been dunking? Hey.
• 36:07
  Well, so I think particularly for Ben, it's the time of day
• 36:11
  that he doesn't usually see right.
• 36:15
  So, but you know, when they're down here, they both move down.
• 36:18
  A possibility abusive dunkers can grow again a bit further.
• 36:22
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 36:23
  OK, so they should both be down this summer and they should both
• 36:26
  be dunking again. We'll hold you to that.
• 36:28
  Yeah. Well, before we finish, there's
• 36:30
  a couple of questions I want to ask you and one has been set by
• 36:35
  the previous the the previous person that I was chatting to,
• 36:40
  and I've always got one my own. So I'll ask you that one easy.
• 36:44
  So if there was anybody, dead or alive, who you'd like to go
• 36:48
  dunking with, who wouldn't it be?
• 36:51
  Wow, anyone dead or alive? That's a massive question.
• 36:59
  Yeah. Who would I want to meet?
• 37:03
  In a pair of swimmers in the cold.
• 37:06
  In the cold, maybe the. Taxman.
• 37:12
  You could drown him. Yeah, well, that'd be helpful.
• 37:18
  I I mean, not just because I can see looking out the window, but
• 37:25
  I think Bear Grylls is a fascinating individual, isn't
• 37:29
  he? And you know, some of the things
• 37:32
  he's done on television, etcetera.
• 37:34
  I think he'd be just an interesting person to chat to
• 37:38
  anyway. And I've read a few of his books
• 37:42
  and watched bits of him on television.
• 37:43
  And it was, he was kind of the one that inspired both our kids
• 37:49
  to join Scouts because when he became Chief Scouts, you know, I
• 37:53
  was a scout back in the day and loved all that.
• 37:55
  And my friend Simon, who was down here this weekend, we knew
• 37:59
  each other through Cubs and Scouts and kind of, it was a
• 38:02
  massive part of my life. So the fact that he became chief
• 38:06
  scout and then my kids went personally, I wanted the whole
• 38:09
  thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 38:11
  There's some like this all action hero.
• 38:13
  Yeah. So I think that'd be quite a
• 38:16
  cool person. He's not got far to travel, has
• 38:18
  he? No.
• 38:18
  Absolutely not. No, no, we're we're going to
• 38:22
  hopefully have a podcast about the Island Swim.
• 38:24
  So the guys that took part in that will tell you exactly how
• 38:27
  far he's got to go. About 3K isn't it or something.
• 38:30
  Yeah, so and, and who knows who knows your, your inspiration.
• 38:36
  As I said that the overview, I think you're very much an
• 38:38
  inspiring person and certainly people from New Hope would would
• 38:41
  pick up on that. The question that's been set for
• 38:44
  you is what is the most difficult thing you find about
• 38:48
  dunking? Oh, I'm not sure I necessarily
• 38:56
  find it. It's good that difficult.
• 38:59
  I kind of, it's part of my routine.
• 39:03
  It's something I look forward to, probably the initial getting
• 39:08
  in. OK.
• 39:11
  Would be the thing. I think the second thing is you
• 39:15
  all seem so much better at getting dressed afterwards, so I
• 39:20
  always sort of like I'll be there, probably just getting out
• 39:23
  of the sea because I always feel like I want to be the longest in
• 39:26
  there. But then by the time I'm sort of
• 39:29
  dressed, I think you were up at the Far Groins by the time I
• 39:32
  managed to get dressed today, so yeah.
• 39:35
  And you see, The thing is that it's always been a part of the
• 39:38
  other podcasts about how long just should you stay in.
• 39:41
  And I think that there's a bit of an impression that you're
• 39:44
  supposed to stay in for a minute.
• 39:45
  And Wim Hof, the guy that all sort of made this quite popular,
• 39:50
  then he sort of says No2 minutes, 2 1/2 minutes is
• 39:53
  absolute maximum. So, but you know, the fact that
• 39:56
  you stay in for nearly an hour, it's a bit excessive column.
• 39:59
  Yeah. I mean, I think, I mean, today
• 40:02
  was a bit different because we swam out to the moorings, right.
• 40:05
  Generally because it's all about the muscle recovery, you need 10
• 40:09
  minutes for muscle recovery. So all the other benefits, 2 to
• 40:12
  3 minutes, yeah, fine. But the muscle recovery.
• 40:15
  So yesterday, which I think I cycled over to Maddow.
• 40:20
  OK, as well as you do. Yeah, so it's quite nice today
• 40:24
  because the muscles sort of ease the second you go in the water
• 40:27
  and all the rest of it. So yeah.
• 40:31
  Brilliant. OK, well let's let's hope that
• 40:33
  we can have a few more chats on the beach.
• 40:35
  Thank you very much indeed for joining us.
• 40:38
  Honestly, it's been a real pleasure.
• 40:39
  And I knew there was something deep that we need to know about.
• 40:42
  So let's hope that we we we get people that are reaching out to
• 40:47
  you. So thank you again, and may the
• 40:50
  dunker's spirit go with you. Thanks ever so much, Mark.
• 40:52
  It's been great speaking with you.
• 40:54
  Pleasure.