To promote and expand the Halliwick Method, the inaugural meeting of the Association of Swimming Therapy was held in May 1952 at Halliwick School. Those present included Alderman Harold Fern, Secretary of ASA, many representatives from the medical field and from organisations for the Handicapped.

We were still tied by the Local Authority for the Penguins to remain a 'closed club', so how and where to start! Mac decided to 'GO-FOR-IT!’ So in August 1952. the Optimists SC - an open club in the centre of London for all ages and all disabilities - was started. (The manager of Ironmonger Row Baths was so interested that he came to all the swims and personally provided the hot drinks for the swimmers.)

The first members came from the Infantile Paralysis Fellowship and the children of the newly formed Association of Parents of Spastic Children (later to become The Spastics Society, & more recently, Scope.) The following year membership had doubled, and then quadrupled to cope, we were using three Pools - two at Ironmonger Row plus one at Greenman Street (known as 'Tib'!).

Swimmers and helpers were travelling long distances for their swim, and expansion was vital so Mac started 'Operation Strawberry’. As this plant sends out runners in all directions, so we started developing clubs within a radius of about 20 miles.

We had great problems at this stage due to the polio outbreak in the mid-1950's. The general opinion then was that 'one caught polio in a swimming bath'. Bath managers were sympathetic to our cause, but many said that if anyone were seen coming into their Baths with a limp, the public would stay away, and revenue would be lost.

So helpers came to Optimists SC to be trained in the Halliwick Method; then we helped them to start up their own clubs around London. - Finchley, Octopus; Woodford, Barnardo Dolphins; Kingston, Spartan; Kensington Emperors; Enfield, Venturers; Enterprise and Scampi in Croydon - and many more in quick succession.