A PHYSIOTHERAPIST who works at Fairfield Hospital in Bury has become the first British woman for 14 years to complete a two-way English Channel swim.

Liane Llewellyn, aged 27, completed the gruelling swim from Dover to Calais and back in 27 hours and 35 minutes.

She said: “This had only been accomplished by 16 people worldwide and the last British success was in 1995.”

Miss Llewellyn has worked as a senior physiotherapist at Fairfield for the past six years.

She commutes to the hospital from her home in Denholme, West Yorkshire, and believes she is the first person from Yorkshire to complete the swim.

She said: “I devoted every bit of my time to training for this challenge and due to the poor British weather I’ve now used all of my annual leave while waiting for this chance.”

After a delay of three weeks, she was finally able to begin her attempt but then had bad weather and 22mph winds, creating choppy water which drained her stamina.

In the past, Miss Llewellyn has completed other long distance events but her latest accomplishment was her finest-ever swimming achievement, she said.