Swimming the English Channel is not a feat which many cartoonists could lay claim to.

However Dave Chisholm, from Eastry, who contributes cartoons to the Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday, took 15 hours 41 minutes to complete the crossing.

Mr Chisholm, 47, is a former pupil at The King’s School, Canterbury, and spent 10 months training at the school’s recreation centre.

He has been captain of the Deal Tri Club’s channel triathlon relay team, Charlie’s Channel Steamers.

The club claims to be largest of its kind in the country, promoting training and competing in the triathlon and its disciplines.

Having completed a cross-channel relay successfully last year, his team mates recommended that he attempt the solo swim.

Mr Chisholm admits it was the hardest thing that he had ever done.

Describing the middle as like “being in a washing machine”, he had some advice for prospective cross-channel swimmers: “Swim between 20 and 30 kilometers a week all winter and be prepared to get very cold!

“Train in the sea for as long as possible as early as possible, and be prepared to have your sanity questioned on a daily basis!”

Mr Chisholm, who was a member of the British bobsleigh team during the 1980s, is raising money for the special care baby unit at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

When the unit was at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, his twin daughters Sophie and Ella, now 15, spent the first three weeks of their life there.

Anyone wanting to donate should email dave@chisholm.ch or phone 01304 611823.