Meet the women swimming the English channel...in Cleethorpes!

Two friends from Cleethorpes are hoping to make a big splash with their fundraising efforts after taking on the English Channel Virtual Challenge for Charity. 

Fiona Hunter, 49 and Leah Pullen, 38 are swimming small sections of the 21 mile journey on the beach at Cleethorpes in a bid to complete the challenge within three weeks.

The pair are staying in the water for a maximum of 20 minutes at a time to ensure that they don't succumb to the dangers of cold water. They both wear full wetsuits, read the local weather and sea conditions and have notified the local RNLI about their swims.

They began open water swimming during Summer 2020. With swimming pools closed due to coronavirus, they decided the winter conditions weren't going to stop them raising money for a cause close to their hearts.

Fiona lost her dad to cancer back in 1992 and both women currently know someone going through cancer treatment.

"We're graced and blessed with Cleethorpes beach on our seafront so Fiona came up with the idea and put it to me", said, Leah.

"She thought we could swim to see what we can raise, so here we are!"

So far they've swum 3 of the 21 miles and raised over £2,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Fiona said: "We appreciate that times are tough at present both emotionally and financially, but we're hoping to try and make a difference to those people who are having the biggest fight of their lives."