#177: Gill Castle on Stoma Bags & Swimming the Channel

Today you’re going to meet the awesome Gill Castle (you’ll understand the significance of the ‘awesome’ once you listen to this conversation! Gill describes herself as a very ordinary person and Police Officer before the birth of her son in 2011 changed her life. His premature birth left her with traumatic injuries, the full extent of which weren’t identified by doctors for 5 days. Those injuries included a fistula, a hole in the wall between her rectum and vagina that left her with faecal incontinence and needing to use a stoma bag (a colostomy bag) for the rest of her life. A very long physical and mental recovery followed. Then one day she read an article - she’ll tell you about it in this conversation - that changed the trajectory of her life. And the rest, as they say, is history. Since then, she’s done triathlons, scuba dived, skydived, sea kayaked and taken up ocean swimming. And now she’s training for her next challenge: 5 years ago Gill couldn’t swim in the ocean without opening her eyes and now she’s training to swim across the English Channel! You might be tempted to call her an inspiration, but she actually hates that term. She describes herself as the most ordinary person who just had a life-changing experience that has made her appreciate everything and want to try everything. And she will leave you wanting to do the same.

You can listen to #177: Gill Castle on Stoma Bags & Swimming the Channel online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

#177: Gill Castle on Stoma Bags & Swimming the Channel is an episode from Sparta Chicks Radio: Mindset | Confidence | Sport | Women by Jen Brown.

This episode is 01:11:39 long.

This episode was published on Sep 19, 2025.

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