MORE than 90 teams took to the water at Magnet Leisure Centre on Saturday as Maidenhead Lions staged their 34th 'swimarathon' - raising £21,000 for good causes.

The event ran from 7am until 7pm and Prime Minister Theresa May - who is Maidenhead's MP - turned up with her husband Philip at noon to spur the teams on.

Maidenhead Lions' secretary Brenda Butler who organised the event said: "I told Philip May how good it was of them to come at such a busy time for them and he told me they both look forward to the event. Apparently he put in a team himself in the late 1990s."

A total of 36 organisations contributed teams to the event, 17 of them were schools.

Mrs Butler said: "Some school entered three or four teams so the children could compete against each other. It was particularly nice to see the tiny ones struggling to keep up but they never gave up."

She said that although £21,000 had been committed already by the teams to split between their own and the Lions' chosen charities the final amount was expected to be much higher, with late donations and Gift Aid rebates.

Last year's event raised £38,000 and Mrs Butler is keeping her fingers crossed it will be matched or beaten this time.

Each team boasted up to eight members all swimming in relay and Mrs Butler estimates that between them they covered 9,000 laps of the Magnet pool and 280 miles.