Scotland legend Souness to swim Channel for charity

Football legend Graeme Souness is to swim the English Channel to raise money for a rare skin condition charity.

The former Liverpool, Rangers and Scotland player is doing the 16-hour swim after meeting Isla Grist from the Black Isle, near Inverness.

The 14-year-old has Dystrophic Recessive Epidermolysis Bullosa, a genetic condition causing the skin to tear or blister at the slightest touch.

Souness described Isla as "unbelievably courageous".

The TV pundit is aiming to raise £1.1m for the Debra charity, which supports Isla and about 5,000 people in the UK who currently live with the incurable condition otherwise known "butterfly skin".

Souness told BBC Breakfast: "She's just unbelievably courageous, brave and strong.

"It is just the most horrendous disease and if you are affected by it you must wake up every morning and think, why me?"

Isla has had her condition since birth and has to be wrapped head to toe in bandages, which are changed three times a week.

The teenager's father Andy will swim alongside Souness on the 21-mile journey from England to France.

The pair are raising money for Debra's "A Life Free of Pain" appeal, which it is hoped will help pay to clinically test drug treatments that could improve the quality of life for people with butterfly skin.

He said: "We need to get on top of this condition because it is brutal."