A WOMAN is preparing to swim the English Channel to raise thousands of pounds for a charity that sends rescuers to disasters around the world.

Julie Ryan, 42, from Welburn, North Yorkshire, is a member of the International Rescue Corps.

She was challenged by her husband, John, to follow in the wake of Captain Matthew Webb, the man who first swam the Channel, in 1875.

Mrs Ryan, who says she does not like being in salt water, only learnt to swim in 1996, but hopes to complete to the 21-mile journey, which she hopes will take between 12 and 16 hours.

She will be accompanied during the challenge, which will take place in August, by Mr Ryan, who will be in a boat sailing alongside the swimmer.

Mrs Ryan, who has been training for about 15 hours a week since September, will not be allowed to touch the boat during her swim.

She said: "I’m obviously nervous about the whole thing – I’ve never really swum any distance in the sea so I see it as a big challenge.

"But I’m quite excited as well. I’ve been training since last year. It’s quite demanding and very time-consuming, because I work full-time as well.

"John will be supporting me and feeding me, and working out whether I’m going to do things in certain times.

"We haven’t worked out how he’ll feed me, but you can’t touch the boat, so it’ll have to be a pole."

Julie is a volunteer for International Rescue Corps (IRC), an urban search and rescue service that primarily goes to places where earthquakes have happened in a bid to find trapped people.

She is swimming the channel to try to raise £20,000 for the organisation.

Mrs Ryan, who will set off from Shakespeare’s Beach, in Dover, on August 1, has been a volunteer for IRC for more than 18 years, during which she was part of the team sent out to help after the Pakistan earthquake in 2005.

She has been training in swimming pools, and for cold water acclimatisation, she has also been swimming in one of the lakes at Allerthorpe Lakeland Park, near Pocklington, where she said the temperature had sometimes been as low as six degrees centigrade.

If you would like to sponsor Julie, visit justgiving.com/julieryanswim or intrescue.org