A woman’s determination not to let a disability affect how she lives her life has culminated in her swimming the English Channel.

Thanks to 20 gruelling months of training, amazing support from her friends and family - and plenty of bara brith - Amanda Love completed the swim in August, raising more than £6,000 for charity in the process.

It was just five years after she underwent a full discectomy (the removal of a spinal disc) following years of back problems.

“The disc had gone through my spinal cord and wrapped itself around the nerves of my right leg,” said Amanda, a housing officer from Pembrokeshire County Council.

“Gradually it deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t walk as it was too painful.”

The operation to remove the disc took place in early 2014 and two years later Amanda knew she had recovered as much as she was going to.

Although her back was much better, the damage to her nerves meant she was left with very little feeling in her right leg and foot and was unable to continue running.

Amanda admits it wasn’t an easy period of her life. “It takes some time to mentally and physically accept and become used to the ‘new normal’,” she said.

But after a discussion with friend, ultra-runner Julie Evans, she decided that her disability did not have to define her have to mean giving up things she loved – and so they entered Ironman Cozumel in Mexico.

“I know it sounds mad,” she said. “But it was very important to try and do the things that make me me.”

With her competitive swimming background, she and Julie figured that her speed in the swim would give her enough time in the bank to allow her to walk the marathon and still finish within the timeframe allowed, with her left leg compensating for her right leg on the bike ride.

Completing the event was a huge turning point and spurred her on to contemplate swimming The Channel – which she’d had in the back of her mind for a while.

“I knew I would be turning fifty this year. There is a period when your children are grown up enough not to need you so much and your parents are well enough, when you have a bit more time to yourself, and a friend said to me if you don’t do it now you might never get another chance!” said Amanda.

To swim The Channel you have to complete a qualifying six-hour sea swim in temperatures of less than 16 degrees which Amanda completed in October 2018. She then embarked on 20 months of training, consisting of pool swimming at Haverfordwest Leisure Centre, sea swimming, and strength and conditioning at Bfit Health and Fitness Facility in Milford Haven.

At least once each week, she would put in a long training day where she would get up at 4.30am and go to Bfit for a 45 minute strength and conditioning session before arriving at the pool at Haverfordwest Leisure Centre just after 6am, where she would swim for four to five hours (12 km).

“That was the winter training,” she said. “As the sea temperature warmed up, I did more sea swimming to get used to the cold because wetsuits are not allowed.

“Some of the longest training swims were six hour swims from Broad Haven, around Stack Rocks, across to the far end of Newgale and back to Broad Haven, about 12 miles in total and again the following day.”

Her friend Mel Miles, who works in education at Pembrokeshire County Council, would support Amanda’s sea swims by kayaking beside her, helping with the feeding regime and not least protecting her from curious sea-life.

“Without Mel the Channel swim wouldn’t have happened,” she said. “Mel would hold her paddle over me when the fulmars decided to divebomb me. The wildlife were very interested in me; a gull took a sandwich out my hand once and a seal followed me for about 45 minutes, every so often nudging the soles of my feet. Mel would also throw food and drink at me, so we could work out what I could stomach whilst swimming. Initially eating as I swam would make me quite sick but we worked out through trial and error what would provide the energy I needed for endurance swimming and was palatable in the sea.”

Amanda’s training swims also included a swim circumnavigating Ramsey Island with friend David Astins, a six hour endurance race in a lake in Reading and a 14 km swimming race in the river Thames, culminating in her final week of training which saw her complete 46km of swimming.

After that she took a week of recovery before travelling to Dover with husband Dai, who works for the Port Authority, other members of her family, and Mel.

“I was so lucky with the weather, it was a really calm week with very little wind. On the Friday afternoon the pilot contacted us to say the swim was on, we were to be at Dover Harbour for 3.15am the following morning.

“The boat’s tender takes you to the start of the swim which is a beach called Samphire Hoe. It was 4am when I set off in the complete darkness. All you can see is the sea in front of you and the light of the pilot boat. I had wondered for 20 months what I would feel at that moment. But I don’t think I thought about anything but the water in front of me. I was just focused; excited but calm.”

Before the swim, Amanda decided to mentally break the distance down into 45-minutes swims, pausing in between each one for thirty seconds (if she stopped for longer the tide would push her off course), to eat or drink something handed to her on a pole, from bara brith to bananas, peanut butter and jam sandwiches and jelly babies to tepid tea or flat coke.

“It made it easier to think of the swim in this way,” she said. “It wasn’t 21 miles, it was 16 to 20 45-minute swims. The first 45 minutes were in complete darkness.

“The only way I can describe it was like swimming in ink. In the second 45 minutes, there was enough twilight from the rising sun for me to see a bit more and what I was really struck by was the sunrise; it was fantastic.”

In total, Amanda swam an incredible 29 miles without touching another human being or the pilot boat (otherwise she would have been disqualified) encouraged by her family and friends in the pilot boat - and a representative from the Channel Swimming Association making sure the swim was in accordance to their rules.

“The English Channel is 21 miles across at the shortest point but I swam 29 miles because of the tidal drift,” she said. “The last three miles were the hardest. The wind and tide were against me but if you don’t swim fast enough across the tide at this point you can get swept up to Calais and then you risk not finishing the swim because you’ve entered the shipping lanes.”

It was at that point that her brother and pace swimmer, Andrew, got into the sea in his wetsuit and swam next to her.

“He said we have to go hard or I wouldn’t make it,” she said. “It was harder mentally than physically, because you’re so close to France you feel that you’re almost there. Everyone says don’t look at it but it’s hard to resist!”

Eventually, exhausted but elated at 4.53 pm - 12 hours and 53 minutes after she set off – Amanda clambered out of the water on to the rocky French coast, officially the 2,045th person to swim the Channel and the 690th woman.

She said the swim was about proving to herself that she could still do things despite her disability. “It was to beat my inner voice that’s always telling me I can’t do something. I was worried about the cold. Worried about doing it at night. It was about controlling the fear in my mind.”

She was also pleased to be able to support a charity close to her heart, Aspire, which helps people with a spinal disability to adapt their homes. Together with Andrew, she has raised more than £6,000.

Darryl Sable, manager at Haverfordwest Leisure Centre, said all the staff were delighted at Amanda’s success.

“We have all witnessed the long tedious hours that Amanda has had to endure over the past 12 months, continuously going up and down for hour after hour,” he said.

“We are so pleased and proud of what she has achieved and for us to have had her train at our pool. Amanda is an amazing role model and we are so proud to be associated with her and her fantastic achievement.

“It proves if you have her will and determination, you can achieve anything you put your mind to.”