11:43AM, Sunday 22 April 2012
Jellyfish, seaweed and P&O ferries are all hazards Ella Foote hopes to avoid when she takes on a channel-swimming challenge this summer.
The 29-year-old from Maidenhead is joining a six-man relay team which will make the 22-mile crossing between Britain and France in August in aid of Diabetes UK.
She has mixed emotions about the swim; particularly as she hasn't met any of her teammates yet.
The former Furze Platt Senior School pupil began swimming for charity after she ran the Race for Life in 2006 and hated it.
A member of the Outdoor Swimming Society, she has chosen to take part inthe Diabetes UK relay as a close friend suffers with the condition.
She found out just before Christmas that she'd been picked for a team.
Ella, who works for Waitrose magazine, is used to sea swimming from childhood holidays but never swam competitively when she was younger.
A competition win saw her train with former Olympian Karen Pickering MBE at the new London Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park last month.
The exact date for the channel swim will be between August 17-24 depending on weather conditions.
Ella will swim for at least two one-hour stints, and hopes to raise £1,250.
Visit www.justgiving.com/Ella-Foote to sponsor her.
Editor's Picks
Most read
Top Articles
The body of 16-year-old boy has been found in the Jubilee River following a search.
Paramedics were called to the scene of a medical emergency in Maidenhead on Monday morning (June 27).
All lines are currently blocked between Reading and London Paddington stations due to a person being hit by a train.