Downstream

mental strength, she
explained, and the remaining
10 per cent is physical.
Freda says her daughter
was not aware of the tradition
of women swimming in the
Thames: ‘Alison didn’t know
their history, women’s swims
have been wiped out.’ They
might once have filled the
sporting pages of the national
press, but at some point the
chain that linked her to Lily
Smith, Eileen Lee and Ivy