Jackie Cobell took 28 hours and 44 minutes to complete the swim from Dover to Calais.

She reached the French city on Sunday, smashing the previous world record for the longest solo Channel swim of 26 hours and 50 minutes set by Henry Sullivan in 1923.

Mrs Cobell, from Tonbridge, Kent, told Sky News: "I had no watch in the water so I just swam and swam and had absolutely no idea of the time."

Despite exhaustion and extreme pain in her arm, she said she just kept going.

"I don't know if something comes from within, but it drives you on.

"I kept thinking, I can't let anyone down, so I just got on with it."

Mrs Cobell, who used to weigh 20 stone, started training for the long distance swim five years ago in a bid to lose weight.

She had a gastric bypass in November last year and has lost eight stone in the last six months.

Despite the slow finishing time, Mrs Cobell said she would swim the Channel again and also has plans to complete the Escape From Alcatraz swim in America, a distance of two miles from the former island prison to the city of San Francisco.

She raised nearly £2,000 for the Huntington's Disease Association on completing the crossing.