In 2019, Swim England’s Love Swimming campaign focused on the innumerable benefits that swimming can have on our health, from helping with weight loss, joint pain and the ravaging effects of arthritis and asthma, among other health problems. This is the story of how Paul Kirby learned to love swimming.
Paul’s problems all began through working long hours – sometimes 12 at a time – without a break, sitting at a desk, all the time doing more and more damage to his back. Medical professionals advised him to manage it with pain medication, but before long enough was enough.
Advised to go Swimming
Paul decided to visit a physiotherapist in a bid to find a cure for the chronic back pain that was causing him absolute agony. Rather than giving him more medication, the physio advised him to try swimming and Paul was stunned by the results
Learning to Love Swimming
“I started off learning to do one length” says Paul “then two lengths and then three.” Eventually, he managed to make it all the way up to 20 lengths and now, finally, 40 lengths. According to Paul, the greater the distance he swims, the better he feels afterwards. After a swim session, he feels as if he has had some sort of massage and for hours after a swim, he felt he had now pain at all.
Initially, he have a couple of hours pain-free after a long swim session, then it went up to three hours, four hours, a whole morning and then, eventually, an entire day.
Paul Loves swimming because once he’s out of the swimming pool, he feels like he’s ready to take on the world.