A retired breast cancer surgeon achieved his ambition
of becoming the oldest person to swim the English Channel
today.
Roger Allsopp set off from Shakespeare Beach in Dover,
Kent, at 8am yesterday and swam for 17 hours and 51 minutes to
claim a new Guinness World Record.
At 70 years and four months, he beat the current record
holder, George Brunstad, the uncle of Hollywood star Matt
Damon.
Retired American Airlines captain Mr Brunstad, from
Connecticut, swam the Channel at 70 years and four days in 15 hours
and 59 minutes on August 29 2004.
Mr Allsopp, from Guernsey, had to postpone his bid
several times recently because of the weather.
He said: "I do feel an immense sense of achievement and
relief that I have been successful. This has been an incredible
personal challenge for me and my focus has always been to help
raise money for Hope for Guernsey and Wessex Medical Research, a
cause that I am extremely passionate about.
"Coupled with the fact that a man of my 'grand' age can
achieve such a physical and mental challenge proves that you can
live younger if you keep active in mind and body.
"I've never been one to sit on my laurels. Retirement
has been wonderful but I know how important it is to keep active in
mind and body to live a healthy retirement and so I set myself
physical challenges to ensure that I keep as fit and healthy as I
can. This record-breaking swim will hopefully raise a large
proportion of the £750,000 that is needed to fund cancer research.
The great thing about this money is that it will all go direct to
purchasing this technology."
Anna Orford, Official Guinness World Records
Adjudicator, said: "To swim the English Channel is a great
challenge and to do it at the mature age of 70 years is astounding!
We are very pleased to congratulate Roger on this achievement and
in doing so setting a new Guinness World Record."
Mr Allsopp was backed by a support crew as he made the
punishing 21 nautical mile crossing.
He geared up for the challenge after being inspired by
an inscription at a pub in Dover marking Mr Brunstad's
cross-Channel achievement.
His attempt came 136 years after British merchant navy
captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the Channel,
doing the breaststroke from Dover to Cap Gris Nez in 21 hours, 45
minutes.
Mr Allsopp has been raising money to fund world-class
medical equipment to help advance cancer research at the University
of Southampton.
The money would pay for new equipment to analyse the
blood of cancer patients and non-cancer patients to develop a test
that would give a pre-warning of cancer.
He has received a personal pledge of £250,000 from
Derek Coates, the chairman of nutritional and well-being supplement
company Healthspan.
Grandfather-of-three Mr Allsopp has a record of
physical challenges having run the London Marathon aged 60 and
completed his first Channel swim at the age of 65 in 2006, at the
time becoming the oldest Briton to do so.