Cheshire teenagers swimming English Channel for charity

The penultimate training session at Liverpool Watersports Centre

A group of schoolchildren from Cheshire are into their final training sessions ahead of swimming the English Channel to raise money for charity.

The 13-16-year old squad is nicknamed ‘The Beech Hall School Mencap Marvels’ as they are raising £50 thousand for the disability charity Mencap.

The epic challenge of swimming from Dover to France has been achieved by far fewer people than have climbed Mount Everest - it is widely regarded as the toughest swim in the world.

Beech Hall Headmaster James Allen said "They have developed community through participation and at times when most teenagers would be sleeping in bed.

"These kids have swam early before school and in rivers, lakes and sea and through this they have developed individually and as a team."

The Channel swim will take place between the 3-10 July, with two support boats to make sure the squad makes the 21 mile relay swim safely.

The penultimate training swim was in Liverpool on Saturday 25 June Credit: Anthea Fosti

About Mencap 

There are 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK. 

Mencap works to support people with a learning disability, their families and carers by fighting to change laws, improve services and access to education, employment and leisure facilities. 

Mencap supports thousands of people with a learning disability to live their lives the way they want. 

What is a learning disability? 

  •   A learning disability is a reduced intellectual ability which can cause problems with everyday tasks – for example shopping and cooking, or travelling to new places – which affects someone for their whole life;   

  • Learning disability is NOT a mental illness or a learning difficulty, such as dyslexia. Very often the term ‘learning difficulty’ is wrongly used interchangeably with ‘learning disability’;    

  • People with a learning disability can take longer to learn new things and may need support to develop new skills, understand difficult information and engage with other people. The level of support someone needs is different with every individual. For example, someone with a severe learning disability might need much more support with daily tasks than someone with a mild learning disability.