A former army captain will be swimming from the north west of England to the Isle of Man in July.

If successful, Adam Diver, from Fleetwood in Lancashire, will be the first to have completed such a feat - a relay team attempted it years ago but failed.

He decided to take on the 32-mile swim after joking two years ago that he should swim to see his parents, who live in Peel, due to the Covid-19 restrictions at the time.

The 45-year-old, who represented Great Britain in the Europe Triathlon Championship last year, said: ’Someone said to me, "do you think you could swim to the Isle of Man?" and that started off the conversation.

’I spoke to a few seafarers, asking if it could be achieved, and they used a lot of technology in the college so we could map it out. We found out it can be done but it has to be done on certain dates due to the flow of the water in the Irish Sea. This was in 2020 that we started charting it and I was given the date in 2022.’

He will bring with him a support team, including a medic, two kayakers and an engineer, plus a research team, who will be bringing a marine probe to collect data on climate change and plastics in the sea to use for the college’s students.

Mr Diver is currently training for the challenge at a wave pool at Fleetwood Nautical Campus, where he works.

He added: ’I’m constantly training and constantly swimming every single day, so I’m quite happy with how training’s going.

’Every 25 minutes of the journey I’ll have to stop to eat and drink. I was trying to go longer but I got too tired and it affected my performance.

’I’m practising nutrition all the time, so even at the pool I stop every 25 minutes to have a banana or something and then I go again. I do that in the lake I train in as well, just so my stomach understands it’s time to eat and it gets used to it.’

Mr Diver, who served tours in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia, was particularly concerned about the risk that jellyfish present to him at that time of year, saying: ’The lion’s mane jellyfish is huge around then. That could have been one of the reasons why the relay team failed, so we’re trying to get the engineering department in the college to design a kind of jellyfish deflector.

’The weather could be an issue if it’s obviously gale force winds. It’s also quite busy with shipping but that shouldn’t be an issue, as we’ll be in contact with the nearby ships.’

The two kayakers accompanying him are also ex-soldiers. He said: ’One has PTSD and we’re all part of a charity called Healthier Heroes, who work with soldiers with PTSD and get people back on the right track, so we’re raising awareness for mental health.

Mr Diver will start his journey on July 22, 2022 from St Bees and arrive at Port Mooar on July 24. He encouraged anyone to donate to Healthier Heroes to support his challenge.