A FORMER Southend Swimming Club racer has just completed a world record-breaking 68-mile swim in the Cayman Islands.

Penny Palfrey — her maiden name was Penny Pedley — did the gruelling endurance swim in 40 hours and 40 minutes between Grand Cayman and Little Cayman in the Caribbean.

Endurance fanatic Penny, 48, who is now a grandmother, was a stalwart of Southend’s swimming club in the 1970s after her parents moved down from Scarborough.

She was the first of the crop of internationals at Mike Higgs’s Southend Swim Club, competing alongside the likes of Sarah Hardcastle and flirted with England squad membership before moving to Australia and developing her interest in distance swimming, which has taken her all over the world.

Highlights of her 20-year career in the sea include the Rottnest Channel Swim in Australian, where competitoprs have to swim in a shark cage to avoid the risk of attack, and crossing the treacherous Cook Strait in New Zealand.

Other highlights include two crossings of the English Channel, winning the Manhatten Island Marathon for three years running over a distance of 28 miles, and a double crossing of the Straits of Gibraltar.

Last year she was induced into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame.

Her father, Barry Pedley, still lives in Rayleigh and follows his daughter’s swimming feats with interest, and more than a little trepidation.

He said: “I got the news that she had finished her record attempt.

“My understanding is that it is a new world record, as I think that the old record was 63 miles and she’s completed 68 miles.

“She started her swim at 5.30am on June 11 and finally finished at 11.35pm on Sunday, June 12.

“They call it bridging the Caymans and the swimmers are not allowed to touch the support boat or have any help. They are fed and watered from the end of a pole.

“The last bit of the race was across a reef, so I imagine that that must have been pretty testing for her and her support team,” he added.

Asked if he was frightened about all the risks associated with extreme distance swimming Mr Palfrey said: “Well, it’s true that I never take anything for granted.

“She’s been stung by Portugese Men’o’War jellyfish and a friend of hers was attacked by a shark three days after she had swum the same piece of water, so I know it’s dangerous.”

Her father congratulated his daughter on Facebook and is now hoping that the doctors, who insist that she rest, allow her to savour her Caribbean record which was also done to boost the Cayman Islands Meals on Wheel service.