WITH the recent tragedies in UK coastal waters Diana Clarke is doubly grateful to be doing her fundraising sea swim this weekend under supervision.

The 71-year-old Beaminster woman is undertaking a three kilometre swim at Durdle Door on Monday August 29 in memory of her best friend Jill Meehan who lost her battle with cancer 14 years ago.

Diana wants to raise £2000 for Breast Cancer Now.

She said: “I have done a few open water swimming holidays with swimtrek - you can’t really swim in the sea without supervision on your own you have to organised with a support boat.

“There will be about 14 of us with two support boats and it will be safe.

“It is a marvellous company. I have been on about four or five holidays with them, it is really a company for people who want to swim safely in open water.”

Diana has always loved swimming and is immensely grateful to be able to train using Beaminster community pool - now run by a company called 1610 after the demise of Bfit -- just down the road from her house.

She added: “It is lovely to go down there and find two lifeguards waiting for me. It is virtually open all the time but it is not well publicised.

“I like to swim regularly and it is wonderful that it is just down the road from me. I was horrified when it closed and now it is open again but there are not many people using it.

“This is a fantastic resource for the town and more people should use it. These people have offered us a lifeline.”

Diana has been swimming with swimtrek since 2004 who gave her a training plan.

“The main thing is you can feel confident that you are safe.

If the weather is as bad as it was at the weekend they just won’t do it.

“The swim we are doing is going with the tide and should be quite pleasant. I expect to do it in about an hour an a quarter. I shall certainly be one of the oldest and I expect one of the slowest because the average age of the group is 44 I am probably putting the average up.”

To support Diana’s swim go to justgiving.com/DianaClarkeDurdleDoor