THORNTON man Neill Palfreyman may be unable to use his legs, but he proved he has a huge heart recently as he swam two miles without a break to help young swimmers go for gold.

Neill, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, completed a staggering 128 lengths of the pool at Fleetwood Leisure Centre - in just 128 minutes.

And his superb swim raised more than £1,000 to buy Aquapacers for young members of Fleetwood Amateur Swimming Club. Neill is pictured presenting the Aquapacer to club president Brian Porter.

The pacers are modern devices with a bleeping system to help swimmers time their strokes when they practice.

Former policeman Neill, from Woodland Avenue, explained: "I did it because there are a lot of great swimmers at the club.

"In fact there are 20 young club members who are potential Olympic medal winners if they get enough support.

"The Aquapacers are used by many leading swimmers because they allow them to judge how far they are progressing in practice," Neill said.

"Even if they lead to an improvement in their times of just a few seconds it could help to win an Olympic medal in future."

Perhaps Neill's achievement is not too surprising for someone from a family like his.

His 13-year-old daughter Heather is one of the country's leading free style swimmers.

And son Andrew, aged 12, and daughters Hayley, aged 10 and eight-year-old Naomi are also leading performers in their age groups.

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