Pride of the Irish gave me the will to swim on and on

It has been an amazing year for me, it is very strange to write it down and realise that in 2012 I was so fortunate as to finish the Oceans 7 Challenge and become the first Irish person and the first person in the world to swim them all. I have been very, very lucky.

I left Ireland in February, in the dead of winter, alone, to travel all the way to New Zealand to swim the Cooke Strait. I met so many Irish people who wanted to see an Irish person succeed in their adopted country and were so proud to be Irish — it was their belief in me that drove me on.

The fear of failure drove me on through the worst moments; an amazing, humbling week I will never forget.