Congratulations to brrr-illiant Scottish Huntington’s Association staff member Paula Hepburn and her sister Jacqui who braved wind, snow and sleet to do ‘a dip a day for SHA’ every morning in freezing waters near Aberdeen to support of families impacted by Huntington’s disease.

The hardy duo took on the month-long challenge in February – without wetsuits – and smashed their fundraising target of £1000.

Paula, the admin and resource worker with SHA’s Grampian HD Specialist team, said: “I see every day how much SHA supports HD families in Grampian and around Scotland so I wanted to do something to help raise the funds that the charity needs. I live near the sea in Aberdeen and Jacqui volunteered to join me by doing a sponsored dip a day. Then we decided to do it in February because it’s the coldest month of the year and we wanted to make it as challenging as possible.

“We swam every day, either at Aberdeen beach, Stonehaven harbour or Catterline harbour. Fortunately the weather was kind to us with sunshine most days. The wind was a bit mean at times, and there was some sleet and snow, but that’s what we get on the north east coast.

“We’re not great swimmers and any swimming that we have done is usually in much warmer climates, but each day we shrieked a little less getting into the water and pretty soon we began to feel the benefits.

“We had great support from family and friends and thank them for helping to raise more than £1000. When Jacqui and I reached the end of the month and completed our challenge we realised how much we had come to enjoy it, so we’ve no plans to give up wild swimming any time soon.”