A charity swimmer has died while attempting to swim across the English Channel.
Susan Taylor, 34, got into "serious difficulties" in one of the busiest shipping lanes as she approached France on Sunday.
The accountant from Leicestershire was raising money for Diabetes UK and Rainbows, an East Midlands children’s hospice.
After covering herself in goose fat in preparation for the 21 mile swim, she set off at about 1am but became ill just a mile off the French coast.
French rescue workers were called out to her support boat soon after 5pm.
Her support team had requested a defibrillator by radio, and a French Navy helicopter was used to take her to hospital in Boulogne, where she was declared dead at around 7pm.
British officials had authorised a number of charity swimmers to cross the Channel yesterday.
France does not allow such swims to start from its own side of the water because of the hazards posed by shipping, as well as dangerous currents and changing weather conditions, reports the Sun newspaper.
