Alnwick mum with stoma aiming to make history with English Channel swim

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A Northumberland mum is aiming to make history by becoming the first person to swim the English Channel with a stoma.

Gill Castle, from Alnwick, was left with a stoma - an opening in her stomach - after the birth of her son and is hoping to shine a light on women with similar issues.

She is in training to swim the 21 mile stretch between Dover and France and if she is successful will become the first person with the condition to complete the feat.

"I'm doing it because I've got a stoma as result of having a baby," Ms Castle explained. "I want a spotlight shone on all these women like myself who are injured to having a baby, a topic of huge stigma that nobody talks about.

"Also for people who have got stomas and I really want to show them that having a stoma does not need to define the rest of your lives.

"I thought when I had mine, I couldn't do lots of things and swimming was certainly one of those things. So it's kind of my really extreme way of saying if I can swim from Dover to France you can go down to your local pool."

She has been training in the North Sea off the Northumberland coast ahead of the swim in August.

The swim is expected to take around 14 hours and she will have the assistance of a support boat.

Ms Castle is having hypnotherapy to help her cope with the daunting nature of the challenge while she has also received lots of support from her friends in her stoma support group - run by her charity Chameleon Buddies.

Gill Castle has been raising awareness about stoma for several years. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

"That's a primal fear, isn't it, being in the water, in the dark, on your own," she said. "It's a bit mad really."

Kelly Simpson, who is supporting Ms Castle in her challenge, also had stoma surgery four months ago.

She said: "If there was ever a champion for sharing what you can carry on doing and what you can push your body to do - It's Gill."

"This is a woman who still dives. She skydives and now she's swimming the channel, all with a stoma."

Ms Castle hopes to follow in the footsteps of other record breakers. In 1927, Mercedes Gleitze was the first British woman to swim the channel now Ms Castle hopes to replicate the feat as the first person with a stoma to do it.

"I'm really excited," she said. "I'm overwhelmed. I can't wait to get it done. I'm nervous. I don't know. So many words."

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