AN ONCOLOGIST is to swim the English Channel next month to raise money for two cancer charities.

Joanna Stokoe has been in training for over two years to cross the busiest shipping area in the world.

Her fundraiser for the Sussex Cancer Fund and the Roy Castle Lung Foundation has already raised over £3,500.

Joanna, from Poets Corner in Hove, who works at the University Hospitals Sussex, said both charities are very present in her day-to-day work and she is able to see how money raised for them has a direct impact on patients.

“Both charities’ funding has been affected quite a lot by Covid and that people have not been able to fundraise in the normal way," she said.

“I see the benefit and for me, when I’m doing a big challenge like this, it helps you keep going when things get tough.”

Having booked her swim long in advance, she, like many others, had her plans disrupted due to the pandemic, with pools and leisure centres shut during lockdown.

She said: “Usually in the winter you would do speed training in pools, but I couldn’t do that for quite a few months.

“I swam in the waters around Shoreham Harbour - I think the coldest it got was 3.5C. I could only manage 16 minutes in that, but I was swimming up to an hour in sub-10C - trying to do as long as I could three to four times a week.”

Joanna is expected to take to the water between September 14 and 18, during a “neap tide” week, where the tides do not move as much throughout the day.

Although the distance is roughly 21 miles from point to point, she is likely to swim further due to the tides and because her route will not follow a straight line, with Channel swimmers often adopting an S-shape route from coast to coast.

Temperatures in the water are expected to hover around 17C to 18C and, depending on the tides, Joanna may have to set off in the dark.

She will leave from near Dover harbour and swim alongside a boat with an independent observer, crew and some friends who have swum the Channel before, arriving at Cap Gris-Nez, just south-west of Calais.

Those who take on the challenge have to follow strict rules, with swimmers only allowed to wear a swimming costume, hat, earplugs and goggles.

Swimmers are also not allowed to touch the accompanying boat at any time during the swim and have to be fed by a bottle thrown to them attached to a rope.

Donations can be made to Joanna’s fundraiser at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JoannaStokoe.

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