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cold water swimming menopause

Open Water Swimming Coaching & Menopause

Menopause and exercise should go hand in hand. Here’s our advice to open water swimming coaches on how to work with peri-menopausal and menopausal swimmers.

Table of contents

What is menopause and how does it apply to outdoor swimming?
Starting the conversation around menopause
Mental health, menopause and how cold water swimming can help
The benefits of movement for perimenopause
The importance of sleep and diet
Community in swimming and menopause
Introducing menopause-specific classes to your coaching practice

You may have already heard of the benefits of open water swimming for menopausal and perimenopausal women. In this article we’ll discuss how open water swimming can benefit all women going through this stage in life and provide tips on how you as a coach can help make the experience a positive one.

As an open water swimming coach, you may have found a growing number of women over 40 in your own swimming groups.

A 2020 survey conducted by Outdoor Swimmer found that 65% of outdoor swimmers were female, compared to half in 2018. In the same survey, only 13% of the survey sample were below 40, while 20% are above 60.

In our latest ‘Evening With’ we spoke to the founder of the Menopause Movement and women’s health physio Christien Bird.

‘I realised how unprepared I was. And then I realised, if I’m a women’s health physio and I’m unprepared for the menopause, it’s quite likely that most people are relatively unprepared for this next phase in life.”

‘Every woman will have such a different experience. Some will sail through it, but most women don’t!’ she explained.

Whilst menopause is something that only happens to half the population, we encourage all coaches to learn more about it. Understanding more about menopause can unlock new skills as a coach and lead to new opportunities.

1. What is menopause and how does it apply to outdoor swimming?

Few people know that menopause itself is just a one-day event. The menopause happens 12 months after your last period.

Prior to this, a woman can experience symptoms that are often associated with menopause. But this is actually called perimenopause.

Menopause is the permanent end of a woman’s menstrual cycle and fertility. It typically occurs in someone’s 50s or 60s, but can happen earlier or later.

Menopause itself does not cause any health problems, but perimenopause can be a difficult time for lots of women. On average, it lasts six years, but it can be much shorter or much longer. For some women, it can last the rest of their lives.

Perimenopause is the transition period leading up to menopause when estrogen levels in a woman’s body fluctuate. This can cause irregular periods, hot flushes, tiredness, anxiety and other changes. The main thing to focus on here is that EVERYBODY is different and no person’s symptoms are the same. Check out this handy symptom checker on the My menopause centre website.

Some women are prescribed hormone replacement therapy for their specific perimenopause symptoms, but there are other steps that women can take to relieve the symptoms.

“A good diet, sleep and exercise are the three things we all need, in general, but especially during menopause,” advises Christien Bird.

Passionate about the benefits of movement, Bird agrees that any form of swimming is a great way to exercise for those who are perimenopausal and some find that cold water swimming especially has really helped with symptoms like hot flushes.

“Women need to realise that women’s health matters,” she tells us. But she also stresses that each individual’s experience will be unique to them and as an open water coach we need to ensure we ask questions and focus on each individual swimmer’s needs, wants and goals.

2. Starting the conversation around menopause

Menopause has in the past been a bit of a taboo subject but the more we speak about it, the less taboo it becomes and the more we can help our swimmers. How can we go about starting one of these conversations with your swimmers?

Create a non-judgmental environment

Before starting a conversation about menopause or perimenopause, it’s vital for people to feel as though they are safe to talk about their experience. As experienced coaches, many of you may already be great at creating a safe space to talk in.

A non-judgemental environment might start with more active listening from yourself. Take the time to have a one-to-one conversation with each swimmer when they join your group. Ask them what their goals are and why they want to join you for swimming. Taking the time to understand each swimmer, this will help ‌build rapport and trust.

Likewise, ‌ introduce ways to bring the swimming group together, if you are coaching in groups. This needn’t be anything as complex as games or group exercises if that’s not within your practice. It might be as simple as allowing people a chance to catch-up before and after the swim.

Say it like it is

Part of creating a non-judgemental environment is normalising bodily functions and feelings.

Bowel urgency is common in women going through perimenopause, so don’t be afraid to address this by pointing out the nearest facilities. The Menopause Movement Course is a great course to help you help your swimmers but giving you the techniques to help woman learn how to cope with bladder control so they can enjoy their open water experience.

You may also want to refer to your own experiences. People are far more likely to feel more comfortable discussing their own situation after you’ve opened yourself up to them, even if you are a male coach you may have experienced your partner, friends or mother go through this process.. We’re not suggesting you over share. Keep the topics related to the ‌types of things that affect us all, rather than anything deeply personal.

Learn the symptoms

Educating yourself about perimenopause and menopause allows you to recognise the symptoms in your swimmers.

Arming yourself with this knowledge will help you to spot the signs and maybe help make small adjustments to your coaching plan to accommodate someone who is struggling through a symptom on that specific day.

For example, ask everyone how they are feeling at the start of the session. Is someone feeling more tired than usual? Then create adaptations ‌they or anyone else are welcome to take if they’re not feeling fully energised,

Finally, if someone wants to talk about their symptoms with you, have the ‌resources to hand that will help them. It’s best not to offer advice that’s hearsay or opinion, so ensure you refer to a reputable source like Positive Pause but ultimately, refer them to a medical professional like a women’s health physiotherapist or their GP.

3. Mental health, menopause and how cold water swimming can help

As a coach, it is likely that you will have already heard several theories around the positive effects of cold water swimming on mental health.

In September 2018 the British Medical Journal published a report about the theories around cold water adaptation as a treatment for depression.

Whilst not all perimenopausal women will have depression, the 2019 research commissioned by Health & Her and carried out by Censuswide revealed that anxiety was more common in women during perimenopause.

Statistics by a Parliament committees also revealed that women aged 50 to 54 have the highest suicide rate in the UK.

It makes sense that menopause, mental health and cold water swimming often go hand-in-hand. Whilst no one knows exactly why cold water swimming is good for mental health, Prof Mike Tipton tells the BBC in this interview that, “There is a significant amount of anecdotal evidence that suggests that it works for some things, but we don’t know how.”

“Cold water swimming affects our pain receptors and temperature receptors inducing a cold shock response,” Neuroscientist Tara Swart explains.

This theory is well-reported but others also explain the correlation by being so close to nature along with the sense of community that’s so often found in open water swimming.

Drawing attention to some of the natural beauty nearby could be a great way to introduce a sense of mindfulness to your swimming group. If you teach in a lido, consider organising a group outing for those who are perimenopausal, and even those who are not, to a local wild swimming spot.

4. The benefits of movement for perimenopause

As we age, we naturally lose lean muscle mass and have an accelerated loss of bone mass. This means that we need to be even more careful about what we eat, drink and how much sleep we get. We’ll explore this more in the next section.

A crucial part of staying healthy as we age is exercise. But with loss of bone mass and lean muscle mass, some people may find high impact exercises too strenuous. Of course, this is all down to the individual.

Swimming does not contribute to the loss of lean muscle mass and does not put any additional strain on bones, as running for long periods might. Joint pain can also be a symptom of perimenopause, and swimming can be good for this as it encourages movement.

It’s still possible to do some light strength training with your swimmers as part of your sessions. This might be a short warm-up run around the venue, or creating resistance within the water, e.g. using flippers or adding in some aqua aerobics.

Whilst you should always be careful about not pushing your swimmers too hard if they’re perimenopausal, the benefits of keeping active far outweigh the risks.

Should someone still exercise if they leak?

Incontinence is very common as humans age and an overactive bladder, or the urge to pee, is ‌ common to perimenopause. If one of your swimmers is worried about this, you might suggest they speak to their doctor and look into pelvic floor exercises to help strengthen their pelvic floor.

Your swimmer may regularly go to pilates or yoga which are both great and not to be discouraged as they are both anaerobic exercises — good for increasing estradiol levels in perimenopausal women. However, they do not provide a complete solution for overactive bladder.

Anatomically, two-thirds of your pelvic floor muscles sit behind you, so it’s important to ‌learn how to identify the area and the feeling that can strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. The Menopause Movement course will arm you as a coach with all the knowldege of how to do this properly and how you can incorporate these exercises into your swimming session.

Another great recommendation is the Squeezy app which has been created by physiotherapists and NHS approved. This will help your swimmers practice this skill throughout their day.

Practising these movements can lead to a more bouncy, responsive pelvic floor muscle, which can help reduce incontinence or overactive bladder.

5. The importance of sleep and diet

Along with exercise or movement, sleep and diet are the other two cornerstones of maintaining a healthy body as someone moves into perimenopause.

Sleep

Sleep is important at any age, but particularly during this time.

During perimenopause, your estrogen levels fluctuate. In women, estrogen is the equivalent of an anabolic steroid.

“If we’re losing that, it means that our recovery is slower and rebuilding takes longer. It means that sleep will play a massive part in your recovery.” — Christien Bird.

Sleep gets complicated during menopause. Hot flushes can mean that it’s harder to come by. A lot of women that are going through perimenopause say that they feel more anxious and feeling anxious can lead to poor sleep.

Swimming can help with this because the endorphins released during exercise can help to reduce stress and anxiety. Equally, swimming is a full body workout, so a great way to burn off some excess energy and make your whole body ready for sleep.

You will already understand as a coach that it’s important to be well-rested before a swim. But if your swimmer is feeling well and able, there’s no reason that they shouldn’t swim if they are feeling a little more tired than usual.

Encourage your swimmers to listen to their bodies. If they’re exhausted, then you should be adjusting the goals for that session. A quick dip will also have a great impact on your swimmers mental health and body so maybe reign in the meters and go for a short social swim. Swimming is a great way to help swimmers going through hot flushes, especially in the colder months if they’re perimenopausal and finding sleep patchy thanks to those hot flushes, regular swims in nature can be a wonderful aid to finding natural sleep.

Diet

A common perception of perimenopause is that it contributes to weight gain. This isn’t true. Menopause and perimenopause do not make someone gain weight, but the body composition does change and the metabolism can alter.

Despite this, it is actually more important for those in perimenopause not to have a calorie restrictive diet, particularly if they are exercising.

To add to that, swimming in cold water requires more energy than usual, because it’s a full-body workout and also because your body will consume extra calories keeping warm.

The Menopause Journal tells us, “Menopause has been shown to alter the gut microbiome… associated with increased adiposity, decreased metabolic rate, and insulin resistance.”

So whilst it’s important to eat enough calories, during menopause it’s more important to be careful that they’re the right type of calories. It will be beneficial for your swimmers going through perimenopause to seek expert advice in this field.

6. Community in swimming and menopause

We know that anxiety, and sometimes depression, can be symptoms of perimenopause. A large Australian study on menopausal women in the workplace found many felt stressed and anxious at work, which led to poor self-esteem and loss of confidence.

In recent years, social prescribing has become more validating and can be a great alternative if HRT isn’t an option or to complement HRT.

Whilst you should always refer your swimmers to their doctor if they broach this subject with you, it’s good to be aware of the benefits of community for those with anxiety or depression, particularly as the outdoor swimming community is both a thriving and an inclusive one.

Remember that only a small part of running an outdoor swimming group is the swim itself. A large part of the session is discussion, risk assessing and debriefing.

Starting with a general discussion around how each person is feeling that day is not only a good way to stay safe in the water but can also flag up if someone is feeling low.

A good way to start any session is with a breathing exercise. This is not only a good way to prepare the body for the water but is also great for anxiety. It can also be a way to break down a few barriers within the group and get everyone feeling on an equal plane.

Likewise, involving all your swimmers in a discussion about entry and exit points, plus any other elements of risk is a good way to help everyone to feel involved.

Consider bringing a few flasks of hot chocolate along to your session. A cup of tea will help your swimmers to warm up after the session but also allows an opportunity for a bit of a debrief and a catch-up.

You will already know how inclusive the open water swimming community is. Christien Bird mentioned during her talk with us how many of the barriers to exercise during perimenopause are about body shame.

People may worry that they’re too fat or not fit enough to exercise, but being in the water is a great leveller in this way as it’s an exercise that can easily be adapted for all fitness levels.

Buddy support is a great way to break the barrier to exercise and as a coach you can aid this by creating a welcoming and familiar environment where your swimmers will want to come back every week, as much for the company as for the swim.

7. Introducing menopause-specific classes to your coaching practice

Menopause is a huge topic with so much research only just coming to light now. At the bottom of this article we will leave a few excellent resources for you to explore.

In the meantime, if you’d like to introduce menopause specific classes to your practice, here are a few steps to take.

Do your homework — Arm yourself with studies, research and evidence when it comes to menopause. The more of an expert you become on the topic, the easier it will be to tailor a lesson for this group of people.
Know your limitations — Whilst you may be well read on the topic, it’s important to always refer your swimmer to a medical professional if they come to you for advice.
Understand the individual — There is no one size fits all approach to menopause. Whilst the advice we’ve given in this article is quite general, you will naturally come across women who already know a lot about nutrition and strength training and some that will know less.
You don’t have to be a woman to coach women — We encourage all coaches to get involved with this important conversation, regardless of gender or age. Outdoor swimming can be a life-line to many perimenopausal women and by adding menopause specific classes to your practice, you may even enhance the experience for someone.
Gain the proper knowledge — we have teamed up with the Menopause Movement to offer an amazing discount ontheir courses so you can arm yourself to be as ready as possible to help women through this tough part of their lives. To access this offer head to our partner offer page on the SLS membership site.

Important resources

Menopause Movement: https://www.menopausemovement.co/

Positive Pause: https://www.positivepause.co.uk/

Squeezy: https://www.squeezyapp.com/

NICE: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng23

The Best Advice for All Outdoor Swimmers You’ll Ever Hear

We’ve partnered with leading cold water scientist, Dr Heather Massey to bring you the truth about what happens when you cold water swim. We’ve looked at all the benefits, ‘advice’ and science around what (really) happens to bodies when immersed in cold water.

This article is some considered advice for YOU, to allow you to #SwimYourOWNswim

The problem is that any “advice” is seldom specific enough to YOU.

We’ve seen a rise in ‘advice’ being given out, most of it anecdotal rather than based on science or fact. That’s OK if this advice is delivered using the phrase, “For me this works the best”, or something similar. But what we see on many social media forums is someone saying “Do this or try ….”. Multiply that by the number of outdoor swimmers and that is a lot of ‘advice’. We know that it is meant in good faith but regularly the advice is conflicting. And never specific to YOU … how can it be? We’re all different!

So let’s make the information specific to YOU

We have broken this article up into four sections:

Cold Shock & Hypothermia
Before your swim
During your swim
After your swim

Our aim is to arm YOU with all the science and knowledge for you to make your own choices that are right for you on that day.

1. Cold shock & Hypothermia

When in cold water, the science here is that our bodies cool from the outside in, starting with the skin cooling, then onto superficial nerve and muscle cooling then finally onto deep tissue cooling otherwise known as your core.

So in terms of the cold shock response, this is mainly felt in the first 30 seconds to 2 minutes of being immersed in the cold water – skin cooling.

What happens here with the cold shock is that your body responds to that cold stimulus. The response results in high concentrations of stress hormones including cortisol, and adrenaline. These hormones are fast responding and prepare the body for ‘fight or flight’. This isn’t a response which supports the body to regulate our temperature, but ensures our body is prepared for the new cold environment we are in. In addition to the stress hormones, as the cold shock subsides we also release endorphins and serotonin which stabiles mood and increases feelings of happiness. It is this combination of hormones and others which gives us that ‘post swim high’, that feeling of euphoria after you exercise.

And then hypothermia sets in once you cool through the skin, muscles, nerves and finally to the deep tissue.

How quickly you go from one layer to the next depends on many things.

Now we will break it down into how you can best manage YOUR cold water swim.

2. Before your swim

How long should I stay in? Length of time is not the answer: it’s how YOU feel remember to #SwimYourOWNswim. Here are some of the questions that you should be asking yourself each time you for a cold water swim;

How much experience have you had?
What’s your body type?
Will you be in skins or a wetsuit? (If you are skinny and lean with no fat you will cool quicker than someone with more insulation or wearing a wetsuit.)
Have you slept well?
Are you stressed?
When was the last time you ate?
Are you hydrated?
Are you on your period?
Are you perimenopausal or going through menopause?
What’s the air temperature?
What’s the water temperature?
What’s the wind chill like?
How far away from the water is your kit?

All these questions are questions you should be asking yourself before you go to every open water swim. You may find it easier to have this list of questions handy on your phone or keep a diary.

The outcome of these questions will be different every single time which is why it’s much better to get to know your own body really well, and figure out what YOUR triggers are to getting too cold. This isn’t an overnight process; it takes time and is best done in stages throughout your winter swimming experience.

This is why using the current fad of “1 minute per degree” can be so dangerous!

Whilst the thought process behind this is in some ways valid (that the colder the water, the shorter the swim duration should be), quite often a time limit is treated as a goal to be attained or broken!

That “rule” may be too long for an individual, depending on the answers a person gives to the questions above. And that could lead to a dangerous situation.

The Focus of your session

One thing to think about when you’re deciding how long is the correct length of time for YOU on that day, is to focus on the experience you want to gain from your swim.

Is it to get fit?
Or get that famous post-swim high?

If the latter, then actually, that feeling is best achieved by a quick dip! Scientists believe (but have not yet proven), that the post-swim high occurs as a result of the initial responses to the cold water. So as soon as that gasp and any elevated breathing has passed, you could have a quick swim or simply get out.

(Instead of staying in for a long period of time, leading to you being poorly coordinated and hypothermic, = very cold and not very happy).

Wetsuit

We still get the cold shock response when wearing a wetsuit. So if wearing a wetsuit gives you the confidence to get in the water, keep wearing it. You may be able to stay a little longer, but bear in mind the focus of your winter swimming session.

Fuel yourself

It’s a good idea to ensure you have fuelled yourself properly before a cold swim to ensure your body has adequate carbohydrates to fuel the shivering after your swim. (More about this later.)

Or don’t swim today

Don’t feel the pressure of having to swim just because someone said you should! Don’t treat a swim as a game of ‘chicken’, just because one person is staying in longer doesn’t mean you should.

Ego has no place in cold-water swimming. #SwimYourOWNswim

3. DURING YOUR SWIM

If you are just starting out your cold water journey – start small, with a really short dip. On top of the questions you’ve asked yourself before getting in, these are some more good questions to ask yourself about that day specifically;

Am I swimming with people who have similar goals to me?
Do they have a similar level of experience?
Are they a similar size and shape, wearing a wetsuit or not?
What is the temperature of the water and air?
What are the conditions on the day like?

If you can keep track of how you feel before getting in and add that to the conditions on the day you might be able to start figuring out what your body can and can’t tolerate. Everybody is different and everyone has different cold water triggers:

the ‘phantom’ finger
the claw hand
the white toe
The ice nose.

This is how varied the responses can be! The only way you will find out your trigger is to keep track of your body and what happens.

4. AFTER YOUR SWIM

Warming up slowly is better than warming up quickly.

The main thing to focus on when trying to figure out how quickly to warm up is to think about how much your body has cooled in the process – have you just cooled the skin or have you cooled to your core? If you have cooled to your core then the rewarming process becomes INCREDIBLY important.

Cool Skin or Core Cooling

You will have seen photos and videos of people running from hot saunas to ice holes and running back to the sauna. So why shouldn’t we have a hot shower when we get out or jump into a steam room (if you have that luxury)? Well this again totally depends on the circumstances. If you are just ‘dipping’ then you might be able to get away with a warm shower or sauna after your dip as your body won’t have started the deep cool.

There is a myth running around about ‘after drop’ and if you step into hot showers you might shock the body too quickly when the cold blood mixes with the warm blood but this isn’t true. Watch cold-water experts Professor Mike Tipton and Dr Heather Massey (yes the very same Dr who is contributing to this article!) explaining it here in this incredible webinar. About 40 minutes in is where this is explained, but the whole webinar is well worth a listen!

Essentially they are saying that the myth around “after drop” relating to blood flow is not in fact true. “After drop” refers to the fact that your core continues to cool when you leave the water as the (muscle) tissue of the body is colder. The core cooling slows and is reversed only when we insulate our bodies from the cold and generate heat that warms the tissue. All of this takes a bit of time to occur after your swim. The issue with warming up too quickly, as in warm showers, is that you trick your mind into thinking you are warm. The skin is warmed by the shower and this in-turn stops the shivering process, but your core temperature is still cooling for some time. When you leave the shower and the skin is cooled slightly you will begin to shiver again. So unless you have a thermometer deep within your core to test your temperature and monitor rewarming then if you have gone into deep body cooling, it’s not advisable to have a warm or hot shower.

If you think here about when you defrost a chicken breast in the microwave, if you do it too quickly then you will start to cook the outside before the centre has defrosted, it’s still rock solid. This is what happens to the body when the skin is warmed, but the core has not been warmed.

Get dressed!

It’s best to get dressed as soon as possible into lots and lots of layers, each layer trapping warm air to help aid the rewarming process. Using big jackets on the top, woolly hats, thick socks and gloves will help to rewarm a swimmer in the safest way.

And remember shivering is totally normal and actually vital in order to warm our bodies up.

Shivering

Shivering is our body’s natural response when we get cold. Shivering is one of the hardest forms of exercise and requires a lot of energy to do so. If you have cooled your body to the core or if shivering is uncontrollable it can make you really tired! Shivering prevents further cooling and helps to rewarm the body from the inside out. Like any exercise you need carbohydrates or sugar to fuel that process. The quickest and easiest way to get sugar into your system is through liquid form, so a sugary coffee, tea or hot chocolate is the ideal source of fuel for your body to help warm itself up. Washing it down with a nice piece of cake helps too. But like we said earlier it’s also a good idea to make sure your body is properly fueled before getting in too.

Warm drinks are better than hot drinks

This question has been debated on many forums. And is something about which we ourselves have been educated recently, thanks to Dr Heather! The current thinking around why warm or hot drinks are useful is because many people think that these drinks can help to rewarm a swimmer. This is in fact not entirely true.

Firstly, what’s hot for one person is different to someone else. If you are used to drinking piping hot tea then you might be able to handle your drinks hotter than someone that drinks coffee with lots of milk which is generally cooler.

That being said, Dr Heather Massey and Mike Tipton have done some calculations on this topic.

Does a warm/hot drink aid the rewarming process?

The conclusion to the work of Heather & Mike is pretty interesting. Humans are made up of 80% liquid (water) and if you add 1 flask full of warm water (500ml) to roughly 60-80kg of water the temperature of the water rises by about around 0.1 degree – that’s hardly going to warm you up but what is can do is help to reduce the rate of cooling due to after drop. So there is a slight benefit.

The main functions of drinking something warm is to add fuel to your body to overcome the energy lost through shivering and to reverse the dehydration caused by the cold water.

A post swim drink can make us feel better. There’s a real sense of comfort when wrapping your cold hands around a warm flask while chatting to your friends about your swim.

One of the reasons we specifically say warm not hot is because if you are cold and you’ve been swimming for a while you can spill your drink if shivering uncontrollably, which could lead to burns. Also if you need fuel in your system fast, a warm drink is the quickest and safest way to achieve this. It might even be a good idea to ensure you have fuelled yourself properly before a cold swim to ensure your body has adequate carbohydrates to fuel the shivering after your swim.

Dehydration

Being in cold water increases urine production and results in dehydration on rewarming.

This is a bit odd, normally our body produces urine to remove excess water, not to deliberately dehydrate us. But cold-water causes the blood vessels close to the skin to constrict and results in a redistribution of the blood from the skin to the core. The body senses this ‘excess’ fluid in the core and stimulates urine production. But when we start to rewarm and the skin blood vessels open up, we have a smaller blood volume and so are in a dehydrated state, so having a drink after your swim is a start rehydrating after your swim.

So all that’s left to cover is something we have seen many times in different cold water swimming forums;

Sometimes I feel so tired after a cold swim and sometimes I feel alive and full of energy.

This depends on how much you have cooled your body and how much shivering you have required.

Cool Skin

If you have only taken a very quick dip, then you might have just cooled the top layers of skin, maybe only just long enough to overcome the cold shock response our bodies feel when getting into cold water. If you get out and dress quickly you might not even start the shivering process but as stated above – you will have all the feels of that post swim high!

Core Cooling

Swimming for long periods of time can result in core cooling. If you reach the point where you start to shiver (as discussed earlier) you may feel quite tired. Shivering produces a lot of heat, to do so requires a lot of energy, but if you don’t fuel your shivering with some sort of carbohydrates then you will feel even more tired! Which is why it’s handy to have a warm flask of hot chocolate or sugary coffee to drink as this is the fastest way to get those carbohydrates into your system.

This might be the reason why some people feel really tired swimming, yet some people feel euphoric or “more alive” when they swim in the cold water – how cold has your body become?

Our main conclusion is to focus on YOU and #swimyourOWNswim

We wanted to say a huge thank you to Dr Heather Massey for her amazing insights into the article and all the science! We also want to say another huge thank you the very talented Gilly McArthur for the amazing illustrations.