A DIDCOT mum has completed an epic cross Channel swim to raise £3,000 for Macmillan cancer nurses.

Fay Dellimore, 47, spent the last hours of Tuesday’s epic 17-hour-long swim in darkness, battling against the tide to complete the 21-mile trip to the French coast.

The mother-of-one, from Doe Lea, Didcot, vowed to take up the challenge last autumn, when fellow swimmer Helen Tunstall, of Reading Road, Harwell, died from cancer.

Ms Dellimore said her friend’s memory had kept her going when she had thought about giving up.

She said: “Two other people set out on the same morning, and I was the only one to complete it. It is certainly the toughest thing I have ever done.”

  • Fay’s story in full: See tomorrow’s Oxford Mail