Swimmers Attempting English Channel Relay

A group of islanders with a combined age of 347 will be swimming the English channel as a relay team this weekend.

As long as conditions are safe, they will set off from Dover at 2am tomorrow (11 July).

The team are hoping to raise £5,000 for Maz's Canine And Feline Sanctuary and the Kim Halliwell Animal Rescue.

Three of the six swimmers are in their 60s.

"We've all been swimming together for a few years, we're all very passionate about sea swimming.

"I've done a few Channel crossings and I know there's a few guys in the team that have from time to time expressed an interest and have done some solo swims around the island so we thought what a better thing to do than maybe just come away and try to do a Channel relay." - Wendy Trehiou.

Wendy completed her sixth solo crossing of the English Channel last year.

She will be joined in this relay by David Le Clercq, Steve Pallett, Julia Aston, Neil Faudemer, and Fred Maynard.

"We would ordinarily spend from September and October in the pool right through to March and April - doing sprint work, trying to get the speed up, maybe concentrating a bit on technique as well, but of course that hasn't been able to happen because the pools shut on 1 December and by the time they opened, we were pretty much in the sea.

"I to be fair am a seasoned winter swimmer but the rest of the team aren't. I was massively impressed at how the whole team stepped up and got wetsuits where needed and we've all swum in the sea right through the winter which at times has been challenging. It went as cold as 6.1°C on Valentines Day I think it was.

"We've been getting the longer swims in and we all had to do a qualifying swim back in May time, which meant we had to do an hour and a half and come out for an hour to an hour and a half and then get back in for an hour. That had to be done under 16°C and it's quite challenging getting back in when your body hasn't fully rewarmed.

"We were getting in at 7 and 7:30 in the morning to do our training because we all have full time jobs. It's been good and at times tough, but we've had good camaraderie all the way through."

You can donate here.