Radio presenter Bill Heine is preparing to swim to London - via swimming pools of the rich and famous, writes Reg Little.

Bill, famous for the shark sticking out of the roof of his Headington home, is embarking on a 111-mile swim from Oxford to raise money to restore water supplies in hurricane-hit Nicaragua.

But, rather than hitting the Thames, the Thames Valley FM man will cover the distance by using swimming pools between Oxford and the capital.

He will begin from Oxford's Hinksey Pool on May 14, where the folk-rock band Fairport Convention will send him off in style. The talk-show host will then move on to pools at Westminster or Radley College and Abingdon. And he is hoping stars such as ex-Beatle George Harrison, who lives at Henley, and spoon-bending Uri Geller, will allow him in their pools.

The idea came to him after he was challenged live on air by Oxford city councillor Alan Pope. Bill, 54, said: "When I was working in Nicaragua, I ended up in hospital on a drip because of contaminated water. So you could say I have personal experience of the problems."

The idea is not connected to the sinister 1968 Burt Lancaster film The Swimmer, in which a businessman swims home through friends' pools.

Bill said: "It was not inspired by the film. I think the swimmer goes mad by the end."

Story date: Wednesday 21 April

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