By George Mathias via SWNS
A 17-year-old nicknamed the ‘Ginger Swimmer’ has swum the English Channel – powered by Jelly Babies.
Lowenna North trained for four years clocking up countless miles both in the pool and on the Cornish coast for the 20.5m (33km) swim from Dover to Calais.
She swam for a total of 14 hours 56 minutes across the English Channel starting from Shakespeare beach in Dover at 5.30 am on Saturday, September 14.
Lowenna from Launceston in Cornwall arrived at around 8.30 pm on Sangatte on the northern coast of France.
She says she made the epic swim powered by tins of peaches, a Milky Way bar, quiche, jelly beans – and Jelly Babies.
Lowenna said: “I’m really tired and achy but it was definitely the best day of my life – it was pretty special to get to France.
“I’ve been doing open water swimming at weekends, when you’re in the open water you have to work with the temperatures – usually extremely cold!
”As it got warmer the time I spent swimming in open water increased, up until Saturday I was doing six-hour swims on consecutive days.”
Lowenna had to remain unassisted in the Channel for the duration of the swim.
She was accompanied by a boat from the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation with her Dad James, 44, also on board for moral – and snack – support.
Lowenna said: “I was swimming the entire time, but would have a break every hour for a feed, which was two to three minutes max.
“I was mainly eating peaches and Jelly Babies – one time I had crustless quiche as it was easy to eat and a Milky Way bar – which was delicious.
“You’re not even allowed to touch the boat or you fail so I had to tread water while eating!”
Lowenna said there was a point a few hours in where she feared she was going to get pulled onto the boat when the weather got particularly choppy, but thankfully they didn’t.
“You can see France but a lot of the time it didn’t feel like I was getting any getting any closer! Once I finally got into Sangatte I felt such relief and could relax.”
Lowenna is no stranger to pushing herself to the limit.
Two years ago, aged just 15 she became the youngest person to do a 14-mile swim from Eddystone Rocks in Cornwall to the Tinside Lido pool in Plymouth, Devon.
She says she much prefers outdoor swimming to indoor pools – despite the bitterly cold temperatures it can reach.
“No one in my fam swims properly –my parents don’t really swim, but we were told we have to!”
Lowenna joined her local swimming club Plymouth open water swimmers and quickly fell in love with it.
“The group is full of amazing people, it’s so nice to be part of.”
Not content with swimming the channel, Lowenna already has her sights set on new challenges.
“There’s a swim in New York on Manhattan Island when you swim under all 20 bridges, I’d love to do that one day.
“There’s another one in the Bristol channel and one in the north channel which I’ve also got my eye on.
“I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone for all the support – all the comments have been really lovely!”
Proud mum Ruth, 47, said: “We are extremely proud of Lowenna and what she has achieved.
“She trained hard for 4 years and it paid off. We want to thank everyone for their support and messages of encouragement.”
