A COUNCILLOR braved the English Channel when he completed a sponsored swim in aid of charity.

Dale Heenan (Con, Covingham and Nythe) swam 1.4 miles from Bournemouth Pier to Boscombe Pier, raising £200 for the British Heart Foundation.

After competing the endurance test in one hour and two minutes, the 27-year-old, from Emmerson Close, Abbey Meads, said: "I'm shattered now. The water was freezing cold. You couldn't touch the bottom so you had to keep swimming - it was tough but I just had to grit my teeth.

"The hardest part was the first three quarters of a mile but once I got past that you could see the finish line and then the adrenalin just kicked in.

"You couldn't swim in a straight line because the tide was coming in and the waves were hitting me, so I had to zig-zag across. No preparation can be done for that.

"I finished at the back of the middle group but I'm told the first person to finish did it in 29 minutes!"

He has equated the swim to about 90 lengths of the Link Centre pool, where he spent most of his time training for the big day.

"I'm relatively fit as I've trained quite hard for this, but 50 lengths in the pool was the farthest I had swam until today," he said.

"I really believe that doing something, no matter how small, can make a big difference for the foundation.

"This is my way of helping put some-thing back into the community.

"The Heart Foundation is a worthy cause and from the money I raise it will mean a nurse will be able to go to the houses of people with heart problems with ECG monitors for at least eight hours."

The Tory councillor has been raising money for charity for the last seven years, but this was his first sponsored swim.

About 1,000 people took part in the annual swimming challenge in Bournemouth.

A British Heart Foundation spokeswoman said: "We rely on people such as Dale taking part in events such as this to help fight against heart disease.

"It's marvellous so many people got involved in the Bournemouth Pier swim."

For your chance to be part of a BHF event visit www.bhf.org.uk/get_involved/default.aspx