Cheltenham man endures jellyfish and sunburn to swim Channel in 36C heatwave

Summary

A Cheltenham man took on the ultimate endurance challenge on one of the hottest days of 2026, battling sunburn and jellyfish stings to swim 33 miles across the English Channel in 15 hours and eight minutes.

Details

Jon Penhale, 53, set off from Folkestone in Kent at 5.30am on Wednesday, June 24, swimming until almost 8.40pm that evening when he reached Cap Gris-Nez on the northern coast of France, around 20 miles from Calais. For 15 hours the Army veteran swam through exhaustion and jellyfish stings so painful that he described feeling like he was having a heart attack.

But Jon said “stopping was never an option” – and he is now already contemplating whether he could swim the Channel from England to France and back again. Jon decided to turn his challenge into a fundraising opportunity, splitting any donations between two charities: the Army Benevolent Fund, and the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire Fund.

So far he has raised £1,520, but he is keen to continue to receive donations towards the two worthy causes. You can donate to Jon’s fundraising page here . Looking back on the challenge, Jon said: “The hardest part wasn’t actually the jellyfish stings – although those were painful, they’re not nice.

But the hardest part was swimming against the tide. “When I was going with the tide, I had a really good pace going, I was managing around four or five kilometres an hour. But when the tide turned it became relentless, it was really choppy.

I could see the outline of the French coast as I swam, but it didn’t feel like it was getting any closer. “And at the times I was swimming off the back of the pilot boat, I could see the ladder and it was like it was taunting me, trying to get me to climb out the water.” Jon, who has lived in Cheltenham all his life, said he had always wanted to swim as part of a relay race across the Channel.

He served in the Army for 16 years before joining the Army Reserves, of which he is still a serving member. And in 2023, whilst serving in the Reserves in Warminster in Wiltshire, he finally got to achieve his goal of taking part in a six-person relay swim across the Channel. But he said: “That just sowed the seed in my mind to take it a step further and swim the whole thing solo.

It took me from 2023 until 2025 to just pluck up the courage, and then I thought, ‘I’m going to do it’. “I booked my pilot boat in mid-2025 and that was it, I was in and committed.” Jon said his training consisted of getting used to swimming long distances, and acclimatising to cold water temperatures. He said: “I swam at Lake 32 in South Cerney all through the winter.

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Report source: Gloucestershire Live