Endurance swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh took a break from his trip down the Thames to visit 10 Downing Street this week.

The polar explorer, who is hoping to become the first man to swim the entire length of the Thames in an effort to gain publicity for his efforts to raise awareness of climate change, stopped off in London to ask Tony Blair to act on environmental issues.

Lewis said: “It’s been a tough swim. The lack of water has really slowed me down and I have not been able to keep to a steady pace whilst regularly having to jump out of the river to walk around the closed weirs.

“But the end is in sight now and all the effort will have been worth it if anyone watching my progress is inspired to do their bit to help stop climate change.

“That is why I am stopping off at Downing Street, to ask Tony Blair to urgently put climate change at the very top of his agenda, by putting policies in place to ensure that we meet our national climate change targets to reduce CO2 emissions.”

He is expected to finish his marathon swim at Southend on Sunday.

Sam Bond

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