A BRITISH woman has died as she tried to swim across the English Channel for charity, French police revealed today. The 34-year-old got into ’serious difficulties’ in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world as she approached France on Sunday. ’She was swimming from Britain, and was well-supported,’ said a police source in Boulogne-sur-Mer. He said the woman would not be named until next of kin had been informed. French rescue workers were called out to the woman’s support boat soon after 5pm on Sunday - an extremely hot day with the water temperature at 15C. The woman’s support team had requested a defibrillator by radio, and a French Navy helicopter was used to take her to hospital in Boulogne. The swimmer was initially rescued from Wissant Bay, near Cap Gris-Nez - a traditional end point for swimmers crossing the 21 miles of water. British officials had authorised a number of charity swimmers to cross the Channel on Sunday. France does not allow such swims to start from its own side of the Channel because of the dangers posed by shipping, as well as dangerous currents and changing weather conditions. Channel swimming is an extreme sport yet until Sunday only seven people had died since Captain Matthew Webb made the first unassisted swim across the Strait of Dover in 1875. The last was Paraic Casey, a 45-year-old member of the Sandycove Swimming Club in Cork, Ireland, almost exactly a year ago, on 21 July 2012. He became ill less than a mile from the French coast, and all attempts to resuscitate him failed.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 10:14:53 +0000
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