SWIMMING has provided a special bond between a mother and daughter.

Kelly Boyle-Ames, owner of Colchester-based Mini Swimming, first took her daughter Katherine swimming nearly 13 years ago, when she was just eight weeks old.

But as a busy working mum, Kelly found it increasingly difficult to find swimming classes to fit around her work schedule. It was this that inspired her to start a brand new business, Mini Swimming, in February 2012.

“I can still remember very clearly driving to the pool for that very first Mini Swimming class back in 2012,” Kelly recalls. “I was in the car reciting my lesson plan over and over in my head. I was going over the names of each of the children and also the name of the parent bringing that child to the class.

“From the very beginning, I wanted Mini Swimming to feel very personal and welcoming, and over the years that sense of family has definitely grown. I was very conscious that Mini Swimming was part of the local community.

“The mums and dads bringing their children were the same people I and other instructors were going to see in the school playground or out and about. We live in this community and I wanted people to think that Mini Swimming was something brilliant.”

This year, the business will be celebrating 10 years of providing swimming lessons for children in and around Colchester. Kelly and her team now provide Mini Swimming at eight locations, including at a purpose-built pool in Stanway that is used exclusively by Mini Swimming.

“It is so rewarding to look back and see families still swimming with us that first started 10 years ago, right at the very beginning. In all we have helped more than 15,000 swimmers over the last 10 years. Friendship groups have developed and our Mini Swimming family has grown. I'd love one of our swimmers to be an Olympic champion in the future, but what I really want each year is for hundreds of children to develop a life-long love of the water and look forward to each and every swimming lesson.”

Find out more about the last ten years of Mini Swimming at https://miniswimming.co.uk/