EMERGENCY services worker Gemma Allerton has ‘swum the English Channel’, finishing her fund-raising feat in the sea off Porlock Weir.

Gemma, who grew up in Porlock and then returned to the village after starting a family, wanted to do something to raise money to support Porlock Oaks Nursery, where her daughter is due to start this month.

So, she signed up to a challenge to virtually swim the English Channel to France, a total distance of 21 miles, or 33.6 kilometres, during August.

Gemma, who turned 40 earlier this year, swam consecutively for 15 days in a row covering 33.8 kilometres, equivalent to 1,352 lengths of a 25-metre pool.

Most of her swim was carried out in Trinity Sports Centre, in Bridgwater, because West Somerset lacks a large pool and open water swimming is ‘radial dependant’ which meant there were only a few occasions when the sea state was appropriate.

Before taking up the challenge, Gemma had been swimming 1,000 metres two or three times a week, so the goal was to swim 2,000 metres at least four times a week.

Gemma kept track of her progress with The Conqueror Challenges app which linked to a device to record the metres she swam and plotted the distance on a map.

Conqueror also pledged to either plant a tree or stop 10 bottles from entering the ocean for every 20 per cent of the challenge she completed.

The final five kilometres to virtually reach the French coast was swum on the last day in the sea off Porlock Weir.

Gemma said: “Having at the start only swum 2,000 metres, sometimes three in a week, never did I think I could swim five kilometres in a day.

“So, I was feeling pretty chuffed with that, and what better way to finish it than at Porlock Weir.”

Gemma has beaten her fund-raising target of £500 and so far has reached £630 through a JustGiving page online which can be found here for anybody who would still like to support her.

The money will be used to purchase equipment ready for the nursery’s new school year.