Chris Shaw is planning to swim from New Brighton lighthouse to Dove Point, Meols to help raise funds for APEx.

Chris hopes to complete the 8 mile challenge before the end of August, and says that if conditions allow it he'll swim on to Hilbre Island!

If you'd like to sponsor Chris please visit his special fundraising page at Just Giving - and tell your friends and family, so they can do the same.  Any money raised will support the valuable work APEx does in promoting exercise as a way to achieve and maintain good mental health.

The following APEx events are now organised on a regular basis:

Monday & Thursday

Football (5-aside) All abilities welcome; whether you're as skilled as Ronaldinho, or as poor as England in a penalty shoot-out... As we need to know numbers beforehand, please could you call Tony Lawrence on 0151 650 1530 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Wednesday

Jogging – 4:30pm (Woodside) All abilities welcome; even if you really want to get out and this is your first time, we're here to ease you in safely and at your own pace.

Swimming Lessons – 7:30pm (Birkenhead School for Girls) One lessons remains before we reschedule for September - so come down and give it a go so you can book in for then!

Thursday

Local Walking – 11:15am (meet at Hamilton Sq. by bus stops) Local walks of interest with a great group of people! So if you want to get out in the afternoon amongst good company and get a bit of light exercise at the same time then come down!

Friday (every other)

Local Walking – 17:15am (Woodside) Local walks of around 6-10km of a Friday evening.

Most activities are free, but some may involve a small fee - please contact us for details on 0151 650 1530 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

AiW's Advocating Physical Exercise (APEx) group has firmed up its plans for a special Challenge that will be kicked off when the Olympic Torch reaches Wirral on 1 June 2012.

AiW's Chief Executive Chris Shaw will be carrying the Torch on part of the route, so APEx have come up with the challenge as a unique way to celebrate his involvement.

The 60k Challenge involves completing all the flat running races in the Olympics - actually 60.195 kilometres, including the 100 metres right up to a marathon.

But the good thing is, you've got 100 days to do the challenge, which runs down to 9 September when the Paralympic Games officially closes.  That means you only need to complete an average of less than 600 metres a day - a trip round the block for most people.

And APEx are organising lots of new activities to tempt you to take part in the Challenge - more details will be appearing on the APEx pages here, on the APEx Facebook Page and on the 60k Challenge website.

So, hands up if you want to take part in this fun challenge!

APEx has organised a couple of extra Spring Walks – the first was to Hilbre Island, with a later one arranged for late April, Mindfully taking in the sights, sounds and feel of an early morning Dawn Chorus in a bit of old deciduous spring-woodland near the West Wirral Coast.  For more details, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Meanwhile, here’s a flavour of two APEx activities that took place on Sunday 25 March – A Tale of Two Tides by Chris Shaw.

Shivery  Sun-ups , sand-sunken-shipwrecks, Saharan -sand-silted skies, salty-sea-strands and tangs, shellfish, sad seal sandbank sounds, Sandstone-isles, softening-sun-lights, slanting long-legged-evening- shadows and soaked-shaggy dogs and soul soothing - smooth-sea'd sunsets...

Morning

To run on the sandbanks off Leasowe Bay is great - but there is very little margin for error: you really must know the tides and the checking of tide-tables and whether they state about adding on an hour for British Summer Time - and make sure that you are well on the way back to shore before the tide has turned.   If anyone would like to do this run then contact me and we can arrange something.  On  summer mornings in previous years we have swum right on the tide line - well, well over a mile out off the Derby Pool Embankment.  The views are stunning and 360 degrees wide!

The first day of BST at 7am (or 6 am!) on 25 March 2012 -  bleary eyed,  early-out, and cold, morning trundle way-out up onto the sandbanks between the coastguard station on Wallasey Prom and Leasowe Bay.   A lovely 6 mile numb-toed circuit miles out to the tide line at low water, with the close proximity to the windmills at the Mersey bar creating a real atmosphere of remoteness.

On leaving the sea wall steps we could see a black outcrop - that proved to be the wreck of a small, old, cast-iron cargo coaster.   This winter’s proper Atlantic gales had obviously scoured round and exposed the old bones of this small ship.  I have seen it a number of times - but the sand reclaims it slowly as sediment is deposited upon it again in calmer weathers.

Mark's photographs capture the sun appearing over New Brighton.   The light was hazed and slightly misted by ‘clag’ in the air that folk have told me is from Saharan dust blown way up north on southerly breezes (the fine layer of dust particles found on your car and other surfaces).  A foot-freshening (freezing) trundle back through shin-shallow pools, and runnels and silty sand to The Leasowe Castle embankment  and back up and over the Sand-hills and through the new woods made for a really beautiful run in cool still morning air.  Just had to brush down Seth (the dog) - and then it was back in time for breakfast - a  really great way to start the day!

Evening

4.50pm - waiting at West Kirby Prom - in August temperatures and cloudless skies - 18 of us (and 6 dogs!) turned out to start an evening's walk out to the Lifeboat station at the point end of Hilbre Island – including 7 people who hadn’t been on an APEx walk before.

Convivial, with a sprinkling of canine chaos - I think it was great:  gentle but great for talking and sauntering and taking time to mindfully make sense of the views.  Even though cloudless, the southern airs and their being full of dusty sediment meant that the visibility was just about ok - no sign of Lancashire's Pennines, and just the merest trace-line of the Carneddau out West.  The evening sunlight on a swim-inducing smooth sea was beautiful, the air temperatures held a steady t-shirting 20 degrees until the sun sank to a couple of inches above the sea when it settled back to a hardly cold 17 degrees at walk’s end (7.50pm).

We could see the distant seal haul sandbank (by the buoy) and hear the melancholic sounds of their wailing  occasionally wafting across the channel when the gentle breeze dropped to a still and allowed airwave passage across the mile or so of water.

White, Little Egrets - heading up estuary to roost, or feed; dinosaur footprints on old Sandstone; long legged shadows stretching east on the way back; 18 chatting folk; a post-festival knackering of soaked, mud-smeared and bedraggled,  tail-wagging dogs – all this and a final muster of folk at the beach near the Marine Lake  to watch the sun nip over the ocean-horizon somewhere North west of the larger Orme!    A great way to finish on a weekend high -  fully fortified for the coming week's days.

We are planning a very early morning (Dawn Chorus)  walk through Roydon or Stapleton/Caldy woods: this will be a ludicrously early start - 5am meeting - but should be rewarded by sitting and listening to the deafening cacophony of sound in cool-green sylvan surroundings and sunshine - (End of April).  If you are interested, please can you contact us within the next week or so via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

We welcome families and well behaved pets!