A SWIMMING enthusiast from Great Sankey is hoping that a combination of unique swimming strokes, which he has developed while fighting arthritis, will get him into the Guinness Book of Records.

Ex-swimming teacher and lifeguard Tom Rimmer, aged 67, of Beverley Road, retired from Wigan International Pool two years ago and became crippled with arthritis, which meant that he hardly left his house for six months.

But he plucked up the courage to get back into the pool and has developed a combination of bizarre swimming strokes which are to be tested as a world's first - before he uses them to raise money for charity.

Swimming on the breast, pushing the water away with his hands and his body stretched out straight, Tom will swim a mile in an hour and 15 minutes.

Another of his quad test' strokes, he says, involves lying on his back, feet streamlined, swimming with the hands. This he will do for 100 metres in four minutes.

"When I told my wife Joan that I wanted to get into the records book, she said that'll be the day', but I am going to see this through," said Tom, who used to teach disabled children.

"Then I want to start doing sponsored swims using these strokes to raise money for children in need and St Rocco's Hospice."

To realise his dream, Tom is practicing and getting fit at the David Lloyd Leisure Centre, both in the pool and the gym five days a week, while he waits for a date for his challenge.

And, he says, it has helped his arthritis enormously.