A SCIENCE teacher has swam more than 12 miles of the tidal River Blackwater raising more than £2,000 for charity.

Richard Marshall, 41, and six friends swam from Nass Beacon on West Mersea to Maldon’s Hythe Quay on Saturday to raise money for the National Royal Orthopedic Hospital and the RNLI.

Mr Marshall wanted to raise money for the hospital after he underwent an ankle operation with them last year as a way of thanking them for their support.

Mr Marshall’s team set off from West Mersea at 9.30am, swimming for a total of four hours and 37 minutes before reaching Hythe Quay in the afternoon.

He said: “The first two and a half hours were quite good, we all had a good pace, stopping occasionally to take on some fluids from the safety boat that accompanied us.

“The next section really was hard, we had less energy, the water temperature was quite warm, and because of the heat we’ve had recently there was a lot of weed in the water which was tough going.

“We’d contacted as many river users as possible to let them know we were doing it on that day, and when we were swimming we had many boats tooting their support for us.”

Mr Marshall and his team were welcomed into Maldon by a crowd of cheering supporters, with the owners of The Queen’s Head pub giving them a free meal and drink after finishing.

He initially set out to raise a thousand pounds, but has to date raised more than £2,000.

Mr Marshall added: “It was a spectacular atmosphere to arrive in Maldon, we wanted to finish there so that we could do some more fundraising on the day with people taking collections.

“This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while and in the aftermath of my ankle operation is was a good challenge to set myself to get my fitness up again and to raise some money.

“The folks at the orthopedic hospital were brilliant when caring for me, they had such knowledge and understanding of the care needed. I knew I wanted to repay them in some way.

“Must say thank you to all the supporters and to the Queen’s Head for giving us free food and drink, it was greatly received.”

To donate, visit https://bit.ly/2u3jedW.