DARING pensioner Roger Allsopp is more than half way through his world record-breaking swim across the Channel.

The 70-year-old retired breast cancer surgeon who worked in Southampton is now more than eight hours into his mammoth swim, after setting off from Dover at 8am.

The granddad of three already became the oldest Brit to do the swim five years ago to the day, but now he is hoping to become the oldest man in the world ever to achieve it.

He is on track to complete the 21-mile swim in just 16 hours, stepping onto dry land at Calais at around midnight.

His inspiration this time to plunge into the icy water is to fund pioneering research at the University of Southampton that could lead to the development of a blood test to detect cancer at the earliest possible stage.

Roger hopes to raise £100,000 towards a new £750,000 spectrometer to help further cancer research at the University of Southampton.