Patricia just before she started her swim.

Injury forces inspirational woman to abort channel swim

A TUAM woman could see the lights of Calais when a shoulder injury forced her to stop after swimming solo for 14 hours across the English Channel.

Patricia Heffernan, nee Melia, lives in Dublin but is a native of The Mall in Tuam. She embarked on the arduous challenge to swim from Dover to Calais on Saturday morning but her departure was delayed several hours due to stormy conditions and high waves. Fifty-nine-year-old Patricia, who is deaf, took on the challenge to help raise funds for National Deaf Women of Ireland and the Gavin Glynn Foundation.

Read the full story in this week's edition of The Tuam Herald, on sale in shops and online www.tuamherald.ie