Football legend Graeme Souness will swim the English Channel to raise £1.1m for charity

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Football legend Graeme Souness has revealed he is going to tackle the biggest challenge of his life - swimming the English Channel.The Rangers, Liverpool and Scotland hero, who has just turned 70, will attempt the daring feat next month in a bid to raise £1.1m to stop the pain of epidermolysis bullosa (EB).

Graeme’s gutsy swim has been inspired by brave 14-year-old EB sufferer Isla Grist, whose fragile “butterfly wing” skin blisters and tears at the slightest touch.The former Rangers and Liverpool manager, who will attempt the Channel crossing on June 18 as part of a team of six, said: “Over the past few years I have spent a lot of time with courageous Isla and her family and have seen first-hand the extreme pain this devastating incurable condition causes and the daily challenges it creates for them.“I wanted to do something that could make a difference to Isla’s life and to the lives of so many others living with EB so when the slightly crazy idea of swimming the English Channel was suggested last year I thought, ‘why not?’”Graeme, who lives in Poole, Dorset, has spent the last nine months training for the challenge and admits it’s been a whole lot tougher than he first imagined.Souness, who grew up in Edinburgh, said: “Despite living by the sea for the past 16 years I had never been in it but that has all changed.

I’ve been training three or four times a week for the past nine months building up my stamina.“I learned to swim in Dalry Baths and Portobello Swimming pool.

I thought I was quite a good swimmer until I started preparing for this and realised I wasn’t.“Fortunately I’ve had a brilliant ex-military guy training me and he’s had me in the water come rain, hail or shine, even in the winter.