A man has swum the Channel after nearly dying while training for the feat.

Steve Fish, 54, completed the 21-mile course as part of a relay team a year after surviving a cardiac arrest.

He had ended up with two attacks and was clinically dead but was revived.

He now says: “I’m so happy to have recovered my full health and achieved this crossing. I was also very lucky to receive such excellent medical attention.”

Mr Fish, a Home Office employee from Folkestone, lead the team of four landing on the beach at Cap Blanc Nez near Calais after swimming from Dover.

He and the others completed the challenge in 15 hours and 37 minutes, swimming in hourly rotations.

They have now more than doubled their fundraising target for a sick chlidren’s charity.

The team, “Wingin’ It to France,” also had Steve Lodge a physiotherapist from High Wycombe, Diane Murphy Weaver, a former police detective from Buckinghamshire and Nigel Stock, a SECAmb paramedic from Hampshire.

The quartet swam in a day from the early hours into the evening.

While weather conditions were favourable they were plagued by stinging jellyfish with Mr Stock suffering facial injuries.

Once the team reached French inshore waters in the late afternoon, they needed to work even harder as the tide was sweeping them along the coast instead of towards the shore.

They also had to swim against the current.

A year ago rescuers fought to save Steve Fish’s life as he lay stricken on a beach.

He had suffered a cardiac arrest on July 17, 2016 while training for the marathon swim.

He had to be pulled out of the water at Dover Harbour and was clinically dead on the beach.

But he was saved with CPR and defibrillation.

His coach, Loretta Cox, was the first to act when she dived into the water to pull him in.

Help also came from members of the nearby Dover Sea Sports Centre and officers from a passing Dover Harbour Board police car with a defibrillator.

Two other helpers were off-duty nurses and a doctor.

Mr Fish was stabilised on the beach and rushed by ambulance to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

Mr Fish was attended to in the back of the ambulance by paramedic Robert Lambert and now explains: “He started my heart beating for a second time en route, when I suffered another cardiac arrest.”

With further treatment Mr Fish gradually regained his health and strength.

Mr Fish, an experienced and strong swimmer, was taken ill during the second hour of a session to qualify for a relay Channel swim.

Since his brush with death it has become mandatory for all coastal boats to carry a defibrillator.

This swim raised £1,117 for the Sebastian’s Action Trust when the target was £500.

There is still time to donate via the link Justgiving.com/Nigel-Stock.

For further details on this story see next week's Dover Mercury and Folkestone & Hythe Express.