Later this month, the biggest ever swim challenge on Lough Erne will be attempted by a female relay team of six swimmers; five from mainland Great Britain and one from Northern Ireland.

The team will start at Crom Castle in the Upper Lough and finish at Belleek on the Lower Lough, just outside the famous Pottery. It is estimated that the swim, on June 26th–27th, will take 25–30 hours and will involve swimming through the night.

All members of the team are experienced open water, long distance swimmers with very impressive track records, especially the team leader, Dr Julie Bradshaw, MBE, from Loughborough, who has conquered the English Channel using the most strenuous stroke – the butterfly. She has also swum the Channel using the front crawl and competed in the annual championship from Carrybridge to Enniskillen using the butterfly over a distance of 10.55 miles. She has also competed on some of the coldest and longest swims around the world. All her swims raise money for charity.

The other five members of her team are Dr Andrea Gellar, Pip Spibey, Nuala Muir-Cochrane and Lucy Roper, all from the mainland GB, and Maureen McCoy from Hillsborough in Northern Ireland, all with impressive records.

The Swim Challenge is organised jointly by Fermanagh District Council and the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association (ILDSA) and supported by the RNLI and the PSNI, who will be present on the pilot and safety boats plotting a course through the many islands on Lough Erne so that the team can complete the challenge in as fast a time as possible. Observers from the ILDSA will also be present recording the attempt. The water temperature is expected to be around 14°C, 58°F. Escort canoeists will be accompanying the swimmers during the attempt. The success of this inaugural swim will be used as a bench mark to challenge other relay teams from all over the world to come to Lough Erne to try and beat the time set by the Great Britain team.

Billy Wallace, President of the ILDSA said, "I don't believe that this Great Britain team will have any problems with the distance considering the calibre and experience of these swimmers. This is an exciting development for long-distance swimming in Ireland and on a world scale as Lough Erne will now be a 'challenge' venue for other long distance swimming associations and teams to come to try and complete the swim and beat the time.

"This event and development of this idea would not have been possible without the assistance of Keith Collen and Fermanagh District Council, who have been instrumental in driving the event forward.

"We will also be receiving assistance from the RNLI, the PSNI, Waterways Ireland and a number of volunteers. It is a credit to Fermanagh how everyone can work together to deliver a world class event."

He went on to say how symbolic it was that the event is based in Fermanagh as the county has, over the years, been synonymous with long-distance swimming, notably with the success of Ted Keenan.