A DOCTOR from Banbury was part of only the eighth double act ever to swim the English Channel Hamish Reid, 27, teamed up with university friend Dominic Jones, 26, who lives in London, for the gruelling swim in memory of his aunt.

The pair have so far raised £17,257 from the event which will be shared between Katharine House Hospice, Cancer Research and Arthur Rank House Hospice, Cambridge.

Mr Reid's aunt was cared for at Katharine House before she died of breast cancer in 2006.

The friends completed the swim on Friday, August 29. Mr Reid said: "We made it, it was great we were really pleased.

"It was pretty tough. We did it in 17 hours and seven minutes. We started in the morning and finished in the middle of the night.

"We swam in the dark for about five hours. The sea conditions were not too bad, the main problem in the dark was sucking in a lot of sea water.

"Only about one in ten swimmers make it across the Channel — we were only the eighth ever pair to complete the swim."

Last year, the pair attempted to break the record for continuous front crawl but failed.

Mr Reid, who grew up in Sibford, near Banbury, where his parents GP Nigel Reid, a doctor at Horsefair Surgery, and mother Angela still live, said: "I had the idea of the crawl and Dom had always wanted to swim the channel, so we put them together.

"We also feel they represent the long and attritional battle faced by so many cancer sufferers.

"Dom's mum and my aunt both died from cancer and we decided we wanted to do something to raise money."

Not able to swim 100m last year, Mr Reid admitted Mr Jones, a trainee solicitor, was a better swimmer than him, but he had enjoyed preparing for the challenge. He said: "After I recovered from the crawl last July, I spent six months learning to swim properly and since then we have been swimming for six days a week."

To prepare for the challenge the duo trained in Dover, off Portishead and in the Solent.

Mr Reid said: "The cold was the toughest factor of the training. It is essential to have adequate insulation against the cold; we have both put on over a stone and a half.

"Our diets, the envy of many, have been calorie laden with double helpings of custard, cream and fat in general. We did it as a two-man relay — doing two-hour stints as we went across." Mr Reid, who works in Bristol, said they underestimated last year's crawl and he ended up badly dehydrated and had to go to hospital.

Alexis Bayley, Cancer Research UK's area volunteer manager, said: "Hamish and Dom have shown incredible determination in their fundraising challenges and we have nothing but admiration for their efforts."

For more details or to sponsor the pair go to www.bigcrawlbigswim.com