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We caught up with
remarkable Ros after her swim

by Graham Tutthill

A woman who has suffered from polio for more than 50 years swam
the Channel on Sunday.

Ros Hardiman, who is 57, and lives in Portsmouth, completed the
swim from England to France in 20 hours 17 minutes.

Last year she was pulled out of the water after 25 hours when
she was less than a mile from the French coast because she was in
danger of becoming unconscious.

Ros contracted polio when she was six years old, and now relies
on a wheelchair to get about on dry land.

She set off from Shakespeare Beach at Dover on Saturday morning,
and crawled ashore to sit on a rock in France just after 8am on
Sunday.

She suffered from sickness because of the salt water, and she
was stung by jellyfish.

But she described it as a very good swim overall.

"I have been preparing for this for the past four years," she
said. "I have taken part in two successful relay swims, and then
there was the unsuccessful solo swim last year.

"It hasn't sunk in yet that I have actually done it."

Ms Hardiman is a former record holder at the Paralympics in
Atlanta and Sydney, but at much shorter distances, 100 and 200
metres.