A FUNDRAISING grandma from Winsford caused a splash at Winsford Lifestyle Centre when she tripled her £500 target by swimming the width of the English Channel in just five days. 


Karen Holden, 49, spent five days in the pool at the Lifestyle Centre last month swimming the 21-mile distance equivalent to the width of the channel.


She did it to raise money for St Luke’s Hospice after it helped her sister before she died of lung cancer.


With a £500 target in mind, Karen was astonished when the total came to more than three times that figure, finishing at £1,543.24. 


Karen said: “I am delighted with the amount I raised. It’s so much more than I was expecting. 


“The challenge was tough and by the third day my back was really aching but I pushed myself because I knew it was going to a good cause.”