A FARNHAM man swam across the English Channel, in 16 hours and 25 minutes - raising £2,388 for The Prostate Project.

Mike Hosie form Farnham has been training for around two years, and went through intensive training earlier this year at training camps in Majorca. While there he completed a six-hour swim in sea temperature of 14 degrees, to ensure he was able to cope with the cold that would be encountered in the Channel.

Thereafter it was regular technique sessions in an outdoor pool in Amsterdam where Mike worked during the week, and weekends doing long -distance training at Hayling Island – mile after mile, after mile.

Mike set off for his swim on September 8 at 4am from Shakespeare beach just outside Dover Harbour, with support crew Jon West and Dave Adams, old friends and team mates from Farnham RUFC.

He said: “The conditions were not good and as we found out later, were on the verge of what was sensible with force five winds on occasion creating almost impossible swimming conditions.

“Somehow we managed to persevere and despite a few wobbles along the way got to halfway in around six hours.”

By this time it became apparent that they were the only ones out on the Channel that day, with the only other swimmer having turned back after two hours. After the six-hour mark, things started looking better and Mike began to swim with increasing confidence:

“Seeing France is a massive boost and I convinced myself that I could do it. Little did I know that I would have another 10 hours swimming. We pushed on with feeds being provided every 30 minutes, handed to the swimmer in a small milk bottle in a fishing net.

“One of the rules being that the swimmer has to swim the distance unaided and would be disqualified if he touched the boat or the support crew.”

Once through the two shipping lanes the current took Mike and the crew down the French coast towards Cap Gris-Nez, the ideal landing point. Unfortunately by the time they got within a mile and half the current was too strong to swim through and Mike was carried further west, past the point until the tide changed and he was then brought back towards the coast:

“The last 30 minutes were excruciatingly slow. Looking for direction in the dark, not knowing how far to go, tired and starting to get dis-orientated, we swam with encouragement from the support boat until eventually my fingers touched the rocks just west of Cap Griz-Nez.

“I am raising money for the charity ‘The Prostate Project’ - prostate cancer has become the biggest cancer killer in men, with more than 11,000 men dying each year of the disease in the UK. That’s one man every hour. Both my father and father-in-law suffered this illness and I hope my effort will help fund some small part of the research that is needed to help reduce the numbers who die every year.”