Graeme Souness, 70, Swims the Channel in a Relay for a £1m Charity Appeal

Graeme Souness has swum the English Channel at the age of 70. The former Liverpool captain completed the 21-mile crossing on Sunday as part of a six-person relay team in 12 hours and 17 minutes, raising money for DEBRA UK in an appeal with a £1m target, BBC News reports.

The swim was for Isla Grist, a 14-year-old from the Black Isle near Inverness who has lived with epidermolysis bullosa, often called butterfly skin, since birth. She has to be wrapped from head to toe in bandages, and changing them three times a week is extremely painful. Isla's father was part of the relay team.

Souness, who now lives in Dorset, met Isla around five years ago and the two have become firm friends. He broke down in tears on BBC Breakfast before the swim as he described what she goes through:

This disease... it's the cruellest, nastiest disease. For someone so young to be so brave... and Isla's aware of the impact this has on her mum and dad and she helps them.

This is a man who won five league titles and three European Cups with Liverpool and had major heart surgery in 1992, according to his career record. Getting into cold Channel water at 70 is a different kind of hard.

Souness surprised plenty of football fans in September 2021 when, during a Sky Sports discussion about climate change, he said he hadn't eaten meat for the previous three years. He gave animal welfare as his reason, CaughtOffside reported, and viewers could hardly believe that one of the toughest midfielders of his generation had quietly cut meat out.

He's in good company among footballers. Manchester United defender Chris Smalling went fully vegan in 2018, Hector Bellerin became a major shareholder in vegan club Forest Green Rovers, and Forest Green won League Two last year.

Congratulations Graeme, and well done Isla!