Fred Foundation

Due to favourable weather conditions Matt ended up setting off for France
at 5.30am on Tuesday morning.

The first 12 hours of the swim went to plan as we passed through both
shipping lanes and passed a number of passenger ferries. The only major
incident during this time was Matt getting a jelly fish full in the face -
something of a rite of passage for channel swimmers.

As we entered French waters and drew to within 3 miles of the French coast
the tide has changed which meant we were dragged sideways and back out
to sea which meant that Matt has to swum to stand still for an hour and a
half.

Despite this he battled on to beat the tide to get himself within 1 mile of
the beach.

Unfortunately this epic battle then took it’s toll. With Matt now barely
able to string a sentence together and floundering through exhaustion, the
crew took the difficult decision to take him out of the water with a mile
to go (he still wanted to carry on). By this stage Matt had been swimming
non-stop for 15 hours 47 mins.

While he didn’t touch French sand, due to the tide Matt actually swum
further than 21 miles during this period. This way an epic day and a truely
great achievement.

What’s more we have managed to raise over £2,000 for the Fred Foundation so
thank you to all of you who contributed.