Pictured above: Left to right from the front, Paul Bates, Nicky Alsop, Rob Cash, Richard Brownjohn, Stuart Dugmor and Gary Edgington

Gary Edgington, an associate based at Rider Levett Bucknall's Millennium Point headquarters is taking to the waves for charity in memory of Mark Rickhuss, an accomplished Channel swimmer who died in 2005.

Part of 'Big Rick's Channel Team', Gary and his five teammates are currently in training to complete a relay swim across the English Channel, regarded as one of the most difficult open water trials. 

Scheduled to take place on the 19th or 20th July, Big Rick's Channel Team is raising money for the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research and has been completing swimming events since forming in 2007.

Gary said: "Although we've completed a number of challenges as part of the Team, this will be by far the toughest we've faced yet. This swim is a tribute to our friend Mark Rickhuss, known as 'Big Rick' by friends, who died in 2005 after suffering a heart attack just after helping another swimmer finish the cross Channel trial. 

We're supporting the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research and hope to raise £10,000, enough to buy ten life-saving defibrillators. We're thrilled to have raised nearly £8,000 so far, but we've still got a long way to go."

An accomplished swimmer, Mark died at the age of 41 after coaching a swimmer to the finish line of the same Channel crossing that he himself had completed in 1999. 

These events inspired the documentary "Two Swimmers", which won both the Milano International FICTS Festival, Italy and International Festival of Sports Films, Russia in 2007.

Other members of the team, including reserves, are Paul Bates, Stuart Dugmore, Darran Dyke, Richard Brownjohn, Rob Cash and Nicky Alsop (reserve).

To sponsor Gary and the team, visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/bigrickschannelswim2011 or go to http://bigrickchannelswimteam.blogspot.com/ to follow the team's progress.