I'm not a self-help book kind of girl...

Radio presenter Jo Whiley tells Lauren Taylor how swimming and gardening help boost her well-being, but sometimes she craves solitude

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BC Radio 2 presenter Jo Whiley swears by swimming to help balance her mental health, saying it “feels like a baptism sometimes”.

The presenter, whose radio career spans more than 30 years, says: “If I'm feeling not in the best mood, if I’m anxious about something or if I just want to feel happier, then I'll head to my swimming pool and do 40 lengths.

“When I come out, everything will have changed. My headspace will be completely different.”

Whiley, who turns 60 this July, says the sport helps as she gets older, too. “You're supported in the water, it’s not too gruelling on your joints and it feels like an all-over body workout.”

She does suffer from arthritis though. “Over the last 10 years, it's gotten worse. It just comes with age”, she says, “I feel quite achy a lot of the time, my joints are really achy, my shoulders, my fingers, my hands, and after I've done something [like swimming] I feel loose, I feel more flexible.”

Wild swimming - taking a dip in the sea, lakes and rivers, sometimes in very cold water - is also part of her routine. “It’s that rush you get after you've been in the water when you've been in freezing temperatures,’ says Whiley, who first joined BBC Radio 1 in 1993 and currently hosts her own show on BBC Radio 2 every weekday evening. “It’s really energising and life-affirming.”