A CHRISTCHURCH mum will be taking the plunge for charity next week by swimming for more than 15 hours.

Claire Smith, 37, will attempt to swim the length of the English Channel on Friday to raise money for Sport Relief in the swimming pool at The Village, opposite Bournemouth Hospital.

Claire, whose two children Jessica, 15, and Jake, 10, will be poolside collecting money and cheering her on, has been training for months now as she will be attempting the real thing next year.

An ultra triathlete, Claire has taken part in various Ironman events over the past few years, running, swimming and biking hundreds of miles to raise money for charity. And she is in the midst of organising her own event in Wales, over Snowdonia, for those feeling particularly hardy.

“I’m always doing stupidly long things anyway,” Claire said.

“I’m training for the Channel next year and I spend a lot of time in the pool training and just thought it would be good to see how long I could swim for.

“It’s quite a good challenge.

“Until 2005, I couldn’t even swim properly and taught myself using a DVD. I needed to learn to swim properly for my first Ironman event.

“I think it will take me 15 hours to do the 21 miles.

“I’ll have little breaks for food and toilet stops though as I won’t be wearing a wetsuit because the pool is quite warm.”

She added: “I’ve been building the miles up for a while now. With any event, if I don’t think I can do it, it just makes me want to do it more.”

l You can sponsor Claire by texting OJAM93 and the amount £1 or more to the number 70070. Or you can go to her Just Giving page at justgiving.com/chlorinechannel