Hannah Denton
Hannah Denton
As the founder of SeaSure and regular all-year-round sea swimmer, Hannah brings the psychology to the courses.
She’s a fully qualified Counselling Psychologist, trained mindfulness teacher and has recently completed an MRes (Master of Research) in Clinical Research focusing on the wellbeing benefits of sea swimming.
Hannah was keen to find ways to increase access to the sea for others so she was involved in setting up the Sea Swimming for Recovery courses based at the Recovery College in Brighton.
Apart from taking a sabbatical to volunteer with Médecins Sans Frontières, Hannah has been working in Adult Mental Health in East Sussex since 2001. She finds sea swimming hugely beneficial for her own mental health and wellbeing.
Fiona Mildner
Fiona Mildner
Fiona is an open water coach and experienced long distance open water swimmer. She started swimming at the age of two and spent thirty years as a pool swimmer before discovering the delights of sea swimming.
Her long distance swims include the English Channel (solo 38km), Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (solo 48km) and the Procida Island Circumvention (solo 38km). She regularly swims with The Brighton Swimming Club, officially the oldest swimming club in the UK.
She completed her open water coaching qualification in 2019 and is passionate about helping people enjoy the open water however they can. If she isn’t swimming in the sea, she’s talking about it!
Charlotte Savins
Charlotte Savins
Charlotte has been a member of Brighton Sea swimming Club for 10 years and swims all year round. She passionately believes in the benefit of sea swimming for mental health and knows that her early morning swims provide the best start to her day.
When she’s not in the sea, Charlotte is a psychotherapist and play therapist with over 20 years’ experience working with children and young people, both in the NHS and in private practice. Charlotte is also interested in taking her psychotherapy practice outdoors and has studied Forest School and Ecotherapy.
Mark Harper
Mark Harper
Mark is an avid sea swimmer as well as a consultant anaesthetist at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals. In his professional life, he’s developed an interest in the negative effects of getting cold during surgical operations, and his deep love of open water swimming has led him to explore the positive effects of cold water swimming.
During his PhD research on keeping patients warm, he found himself increasingly studying people in cold water situations. Mark worked in collaboration with the Extreme Environments Laboratory at Portsmouth University and is now the expert advisor on cold for the Outdoor Swimming Society. Mark is also a member of Brighton Swimming Club.
Charlie Dannreuther
Charlie Dannreuther
Charlie Dannreuther holds a lecturing position in the politics department at the University of Leeds. His teaching focuses on European and British politics while his research explores the political economy of everyday experiences in small business, wellbeing and infrastructure. He is general secretary of EAEPE a large pan European association that promotes pluralism in economic thought. He loves to swim and ride his bike around Sussex and regularly walks Pebbles the dog with his wife and kids along Ditchling Beacon
Sam Milford
Sam Milford
Sam is a practicing psychotherapist and is also the clinical manager at Gambling Therapy. He has just completed a research project exploring the relationship between open water swimming and mental health – looking at the psychotherapeutic benefits of regular sea swims. Recognising the huge benefits of spending time in and around the sea he plans to start running some psychotherapy sessions from the beach over the coming months.
Sam swims in the sea every morning – he also cycles and runs and enjoys the excitement of an occasional triathlon.
Michael Jennings
Michael Jennings
Michael is a qualified Open Water Swim Coach with a passion for Mental health and wellbeing. Michael is keen to combine both of these passions to help and support people from all walks of life.
Michael has been a swimmer since the age of 6, competing at national and international level in the pool. Several years ago he took to open water swimming where he successfully completed an English Channel solo swim, Lake Windermere solo and a record-breaking relay swim the length of Lake Geneva.