‘I AM insane’ — my first thought as I stood shivering and shaking in my swimsuit ready to jump into the freezing cold Clyde.

Just hours earlier, I had decided to quite literally make a ‘fresh’ start in 2017 by heading to Rhu Marina to join 204 hardy souls for some freezing fun.

And what a perfect day it was for it, as the sun split the sky over the stunning marina.

My nerves kicked in with 15 minutes to go when an announcement asked all the swimmers to make their way round to the pontoon.

Bracing myself, I stripped down to my swimming costume and made my way to the start.

Despite the chattering teeth and goosebumps, I relaxed as I laughed and joked with the other swimmers, who were aged from as young as five right up to people in their 80s.

I was shocked and delighted by the huge crowds who came out to cheer us all on and felt very safe as lots of volunteers from the coastguard were already in the water.

After waving to my mum and dad, pictured inset, who were standing at the marina, the 10 second countdown began.

There were cheers when the first swimmers quickly dived in and before I knew it, I was next.

Screaming, I leapt into the water.

The cold was a shock to the system and after surfacing, I couldn’t stop myself from screaming again.

With encouragement from the coastguard, I began to swim to the shore using a mixture of breast stroke and front crawl.

After a few seconds, I began to relax and savoured the refreshing swim.

Once I was able to stand up, I walked out of the water and despite the fact that my feet were numb, I couldn’t wipe the huge grin off my face — especially after being handed hot soup to help me defrost!

Afterwards, Terry Paterson, who is the secretary of the Helensburgh RNLI fundraising committee, said that the event managed to raised more than £1,000.

This was by far my best ever New Year and I would recommend everyone to take to the plunge next year and help raise money for a worthwhile cause.