We're swimming the Channel.. there and back. My cardiologist is not terribly thrilled

Legend's fundraiser for cruel 'butterfly skin' condition

- MARC BAKER

Football fans will be cheering the return of Liverpool and Scotland legend Graeme Souness next month when he again tackles the chilly waters of the English Channel.

Aged 71 and just months after emergency heart surgery, his idea of rehabilitation is swimming to France and back in a 60-mile relay.

He was inspired by the courage of pal Isla Grist, 16, who has the debilitating condition epidermolysis bullosa.

Known as "butterfly skin" as it so fragile, it causes skin to tear and blister.

In 2023, Graeme swam from Dover to Calais as part of a relay team and raised £1.5million (€1.7m) for EB charity DEBRA. Aiming to raise £5m with his new challenge on May 1, he tells The Mirror: "These children have no quality of life. And the impact on the families, I certainly couldn't begin to imagine it.

"We're in a war and this is just the beginning. As long as they [DEBRA] want me to keep involved, I will be involved to make sure this thing exists until ultimately a cure is found.

"I am in this until the end as this disease is so cruel."

Graeme had two stents fitted inside existing ones in one of his coronary arteries after chest pains last year.

But the former Sky Sports pundit admits his cardiologist, Suneel Talwar, is less enthusiastic about his fundraiser.

Graeme says: "My cardiologist is not terribly thrilled but I do feel fitter than I did it last time.

"My cardiologist has looked after me for 15 years and I'm in great hands.

"What I have to stay away from is things like playing squash or tennis."

Graeme had a triple heart bypass in 1992 after being diagnosed with coronary heart disease aged 38, when he was the Liverpool manager.