Swimming club members hoping to raise thousands of pounds for new equipment have tackled the challenge the way they know best - by taking to the pool.

The Beccles Kingfishers train at Bungay Pool and Gym, and took part in a 24-hour club relay this week to buy a new electronic scoreboard.

Younger swimmers did as many lengths as they could in an hour on a schedule from 8pm on Tuesday night to 8pm on Wednesday night and two relay teams of four swimmers did as many 1,000 metre sessions each as they could throughout the 24 hours.

But Men’s Club captain Lawrence Lowman took on an extra challenge - swimming 48,000 metres himself in the 24-hour period, 1.5 times the distance of the English Channel crossing.

“I wanted to raise as much money as I could,” he said. “And I knew the best way to do that was to do something absolutely nuts.”

Mr Lowman’s sponsorship was split between the club and Leukaemia Research in honour of a friend’s mother who died from the disease.

“The support I’ve had has been incredible, people have been sending me Facebook messages through the night,” he said.

“What kept me going was thinking I’ve raised all this money, I can’t go back to people and tell them I didn’t do the swim.”

Previous events held to raise money for the club have raised in the region of £2,500 and head coach Tim Millett said if a similar sum was raised from the 24-hour club relay, they would be able to buy the new scoreboard.

“Over the last four or five years the club has raised £30,000,” he said. “And this is the last bit of the jigsaw to buy a really state of the art piece of timekeeping equipment.

“It means we will have something that rivals the likes of UEA and Ipswich.

“The key to the event is we have had continuous swimming over the 24 hours, there’s always someone in the water.”

And among those camped out all night taking turns to swim was 14-year-old Sam Skuse.

He said: “It’s really tiring, but really good. It went better than I expected and it’s all for a good cause, which kept me going.

“The club is really friendly and there’s been such a good atmosphere.”

For more information on the club, or to donate, visit www.beccleskingfishers.co.uk or call Bungay Pool and Gym on 01986 895014.

•Are you holding a fundraiser? Email polly.grice@archant.co.uk