Jellyfish and strong tides failed to stop four local men swimming the English Channel in the middle of the night for charity.

Jason Ransley, Paul Hancock, Greg Wood and Stuart Parris completed the relay swim in 9hr 27min on Friday and have almost hit their fundraising target of £7,000.

The Hythe Aqua quartet were originally due to take to the water a month ago, but poor weather set them back.

And the friends had to rush to Dover Harbour last Thursday when they were told it was finally all systems go.

"I was in Cornwall," said team captain Wood. "I’d been for a surf on the Wednesday and got the phone call that evening saying we were going to swim on Thursday. I had to drive home from Cornwall and go straight to swimming.

"Paul came back from his holiday in Devon early so we were a bit scattered at the time.

"It’s short notice and difficult to plan. We set off at midnight and got to France about 9.30am.

"Jason suffered from extreme sea sickness and Stuart was a bit ill as well. They struggled more than myself and Paul."

He added: "Swimming at night brings its own challenges. The only thing you can see every now and then is a jellyfish going past your nose. We got stung quite a bit.

"You know it’s not going to kill you. It might hurt but if it stings, it takes away the pain of your arms aching. They’re not fun to get stung by because you normally get hit on the face."

A big tide carried the men further north than planned, dashing their hopes of
breaking the cross-channel relay record.

But they have now raised £6,420 for the Northwood Charitable Foundation and you can still donate at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/E2Frelayswim2016.