AN asthmatic 11-year-old from Melksham has set himself the goal of swimming the equivalent of Loch Ness for the MS Society.

This time last year, Ciaran Hanks, of Hazelwood Road, began a challenge to swim the width of the English Channel, 35.18km, at Trowbridge Sports Centre pool, a task he successfully completed before his Christmas Day deadline.

Now Ciaran, who struggled to complete a length of the pool at the start of 2016 due to breathing problems, is back swimming lengths at the pool, cheered on by Paralympic gold medalist Stephanie Millward, and is already 16km towards his 36.33km target.

"I am enjoying a lot more this time round as I am better and more confident that I can achieve my goal," said Ciaran, who is about to start at Melksham Oak this month.

"I only took up swimming lessons a couple of years ago and now I am doing these big challenges so I am happy with how far I have come. I chose this challenge as Loch Ness is a well known place and I wanted to go a bit further.

"Last year I was so pleased to raise £705 for Wiltshire Air Ambulance so hopefully I can raise even more this time round. People have donated more than £200 so far so it is a good start.

"Stephanie has MS and she gave me good encouragement and advice last year so this year I wanted to thank her and raise money for the MS Society.

"It was good to have her swimming with me again this week. She is a really nice person and what she did is incredible. She is a big inspiration to me.

"I am trying to swim twice a week but with school coming up it may make it harder to find time with the work but I am confident I can complete this challenge."

His mum Caroline and dad Jason could not be more proud of their son.

"To think where he was last year, it is incredible what he has done. Stephanie was really impressed by how much he has improved from last year and so are we," said Mrs Hanks.

"Over the last month he has zooming along but he won't be able to go as much as he starts at Melksham Oak soon so school work will have to come first but he will get there before Christmas Day for certain."

To follow his progress visit www.facebook.com/CiaransLochNessAdventure/ and to donate go to www. justgiving.com/fundraising/lochness adventure