Menopause: 'Cold water swimming helped us'

"I didn't realise I was starting to go through the menopause when it happened a few years ago," said Alison Owen.

The 49-year-old left her teaching job last summer to care full time for her daughter who has cerebral palsy.

Soon afterwards she started to get involved in cold water swimming, sampling areas around the Gower Peninsula in Swansea.

She added that it takes "around 91 seconds of absolute grit" to stay in the water, before the body begins to adjust - and that it is helping her cope with the menopause.