AN URSWICK man is a third of the way through a Lake District swimming challenge dedicated to the memory of his grandfather.

Despite having little open water swimming experience, Tim Faudemer has already completed swims of 84 of the 248 bodies of water outlined in a 20-year-old book.

The 26-year-old's grandad, Brian Mitchell, passed away earlier this year aged 79 from Motor Neurone Disease and now Tim wants to raise money to others affected by the muscle-wasting disease.

"Not having much experience is part of the challenge," said Tim, an operations engineer at BAE Systems in Barrow who is originally from Jersey.

"My wife Katherine recently competed the Wainwrights so I wanted a challenge similar to that. It's called the Lake Distroct but nobody is really too focussed on the lakes.

"It is a good form of exercise where you don't feel the pain in the joints like running.

"It is something I have been thinking of doing for a little while but when my grandfather passed away it became a charity challenge to dedicate it to him

"Through doing it the head fundraiser from the charity got in touch with me and sent us t-shirts, posters etc."

Tim is following a book called The Tarns of Lakeland which was published back in 1995 by John and Anne Nuttall.

He plans to complete all the tarns and lakes via their longest length.

Some of them are huge, including Coniston, Windermere and Ullswater, and some of them involve a long hike into the mountains.

Despite already chalking off more than a third of the intended swims, it hasn't come without its challenges.

Tim said: "I did Loweswater a few weeks ago and I found out afterwards it has blue-green algae which isn't too good for you and wasn't very enjoyable. "As I was going through it there was this horrible green sludge and I never realised what it was.

"I wasn't sick but I didn't feel great and had a big case of the flu for a few days.

"Hopefully I can get Ullswater done before it gets too cold. If that goes well I will be more confident about doing Windermere."

Tim has set a target of £500 which will pay for a week's care in a specialist centre - but hopes to raise more.

Visit www.greatlakestarnchallenge.weebly.com to follow his journey and www.justgiving.com/Tim-Faudemer1 to donate.