A Donegal woman is attempting to become the first female to swim the gruelling 10 miles from Tory Island, off the Donegal coast, to the mainland.
Ms Anne Marie Ward, an employee of the North Western Health Board, has been training for the event since last September and will have three major offshore training swims in the coming days as part of her preparations for the main event which takes place on Saturday, July 19th.
She will be swimming to raise funds for the Friends of Letterkenny General Hospital and the Donegal Hospice.
On Saturday, Ms Ward (36) will attempt to become the first person to swim from Gola Island off the west coast of Donegal to Kincasslagh Pier - a distance of 4.7 miles.
On Sunday, she will attempt to become the first female to swim from Arranmore Island to Burtonport - a distance of over two -and-a-half miles.
Then, on Tuesday next she plans to swim along the Donegal coast from Downings Beach to Killahoey Beach, near Dunfanaghy, a distance of more than four miles.
A medical team will be on hand and a command boat and three rescue boats, with qualified divers, will accompany her on the training swims and on the main event.
Five support swimmers will work as a relay team on the day of the big event.
Last week, Ms Ward spent three days swimming shorter distances off Tory Island.
"The conditions were testing with a six metre swell one day but overall things are going very well," she said.
Only two people have completed the swim from Tory to the mainland before, UK long-distance swimmer Jack McClelland in 1968, and Donegal man Henry O'Donnell in 1995 and 1997.
Anyone wishing to sponsor Ms Ward can contribute directly to the Donegal Hospice and/or the Friends of Letterkenny Hospital.