A SPORTS lover preparing to swim the English Channel is urging volunteers to mirror her feat by taking the plunge in a leisure centre pool.

Fay Dellimore, 46, a personal trainer from Didcot who promotes sport for leisure centre managers Nexus, is greasing up and swimming to France in July.

Now she wants other swimmers to complete the same distance between them in a 24-hour Swimathon at the Didcot Wave leisure centre from noon on Saturday, February 20.

Swimmers can sign up to complete any distance to help make up the 21 nautical miles – by swimming some of the 1,554 lengths of the pool which equate to the Channel crossing.

Their joint feat will raise thousands of pounds for the new Oxford Heart Centre, which will help 20,000 people a year.

Ms Dellimore said: “Swimming works all of your muscles for all-over fitness.

“It is good for your cardiovascular system, your heart and lungs, and even people who have problems with their joints can do it.

“Swimming is for everybody and this is a great challenge to prove it.”

The event is one of several across south Oxfordshire for the Put Your Heart Into It campaign to raise money for the new centre.

Didcot Wave is also hosting a gym challenge on bikes, treadmills and rowing machines this Saturday and Sunday, while the Castle Leisure Centre, in Wallingford, is running a Loosely Go Dancing session for beginners on Sunday from 10am to 4pm.

There will be a fundraising day at Abbey Sports Centre, in Berinsfield on Saturday, February 27, and a three-hour non-stop aerobics session at Didcot Leisure Centre the following day.

Ms Dellimore’s own Channel challenge will take place at the end of July, following two years on a waiting list.

She said: “I’ve wanted to swim the Channel since I was a child. I like to push myself to find out how far I can go.”

Her swim will raise money for the Macmillan Nurses. Nurses from the charity had looked after her friend Helen Tunstall, from Harwell, who died at the end of last year.

She said: “If Helen had still been alive, she would have swum the last 100m with me. Sadly, it was not to be.”