Birchington mum Rebekah Kefford  aims to become the first woman, and only the second person, to swim the eight miles from the Red Sands World War Two Red Sand Fort in the Thames Estuary back to the Kent coast tomorrow (August 6).

The mum-of-two will face hazards including cold sea temperatures, jellyfish stings, exhaustion and salt water causing soreness of the mouth and nose as she tackles the journey.

The 53-year-old expects the challenge to take between five and six hours and predicts landing on the coastline anywhere between Whitstable and Herne Bay – dependent on tides and swimming speed.

Rebekah will be raising money for Aspire – a charity which supports adults and children paralysed by spinal cord injury.

She has been supporting the cause since completing her first an English Channel swim in 2019.

Rebekah said: “There have been one or two attempts in the past but these failed. Last year Dan Brown did it for the first time with Aspire and he has been helping me with his navigational skills.

“It should take me five or six hours, dependent on tide and wind speed.”

Rebekah has spent the last 10 months in intensive training. She said: “During the winter months I was at the pool building up strength and stamina. I had individual training sessions with someone who used to teach people at national level.

“From March, I was getting into the cold water when it was about 7 degrees, and building up to longer swims, so I did three hours at Dover and then three-and-a-half and four. The last long swim was four-and-a-half hours last month.

“It’s been a hard slog and some days I thought ‘what am I doing’ as it is difficult to manage with the tides, work and family life – I have two sons and a husband.”

Despite the challenging training regime Rebekah aims – tides and wind depending- to take the plunge tomorrow, going out to the Forts ready for an 8.15am set off.

She said: “They will dump me in the water at high tide and I swim alongside the vessel. The crew onboard will look after me and I stop every 45 minutes for a feed – a bottle of energy drink with carbs and electrolytes.

“The first three hours the tide will take me towards the Isle of Sheppey and then the following hours will take me inshore. Where I will land is hard to say, somewhere around Whitstable. If I get to Reculver I’ve gone too far as the boat goes as far as it can without grounding and I swim to shore, land, and then swim back to the boat. At Reculver it is too shallow and rocky for the boat.

“There is always a risk of jellyfish stings and from the cold, that’s why I have trained to acclimatise.

“I had to have a medical to be passed by a doctor as fit with checks for heart rate, blood pressure and all those things.

“There is also the risk from ingesting the salt water which can give you an incredibly sore mouth and nasal passages, that’s not pleasant but I have a bit of mouthwash in my feed. I can only stop for that for 30 seconds as all the time you are stopped the tide can take you off course.

“Dan helped with the planning and there were also certain things to consider with that such as the sand banks at low tide around Leysdown.”

Rebekah is taking on the challenge under strict Channel swim rules even though the route is not yet ratified. This means she will wear a swimsuit, not a wetsuit, with no neoprene (a man-made synthetic rubber). There will also be no flotation devices and no touching the boat.

Rebekah has bust through her original £8k target for Aspire and is now hoping to reach £10k. She said: “It is a cause close to my heart and I have volunteered for them for about six years now. I have had massive support from strangers donating and my main sponsor Manor House Nursery Group, it has been quite humbling.

“I’m quite looking forward to getting it done as it has dominated my life for so long!”

To find Rebekah’s fundraising page for Aspire click here

The Red Sands Fort is a series of seven World War II sea forts located in the Thames Estuary, designed to defend against aerial attacks on London.