SHE made it! Jill Beavis succeeded in her challenge of kayaking from Eddystone Lighthouse to Hope Cove on Sunday, despite being terrified of the sea.

‘I lost a night’s sleep’, said Jill after the event, ‘so I was weary from only three hours the night before but apart from that I’ve got no aches and pains at all!’ At 65, Jill had kayaked 22 miles from the Eddystone Lighthouse to Hope Cove in just six and a half hours. ‘I was expected eight or nine’, Jill said.

Jill was greeted at Hope Cove with an amazing welcoming party, with banners over the breakwater, people on boats cheering her on and ‘lots of champagne and cake’. The cake, which Jill thinks was made by Susie Clavin, even featured a little Eddystone Lighthouse on top.

‘It was so lovely’ said Jill, who is also the First Responder for Hope Cove and Salcombe area. ‘The beach was packed, they all just appeared, strangers and children were coming up to me with money to donate to the charities and people have got in touch with me who I haven’t seen in thirty years, its been amazing, it was a fantastic day.

‘I was shaking so much at the start that the whole kayak was shaking, I was so scared, but to be able to finish feeling as fit as I did was just incredible, everyone should do it!’

Talking about Ben Sherring, Sea Kayak Salcombe, who trained her for her challenge and accompanied her, she said: ‘He was amazing. What a teacher, to be able to teach me to be able to do that! I did have to dig deep at times, but it was just incredible.’

Jill estimated she has raised around £4,500 which will be split between her three charities: The Hope Cove Lifeboat, the Fisherman’s Reading Room at Hope Cove and Sense, the deaf-blind charity. The Hope and Anchor Inn staff are donating their tips for July, as are the staff of Sea Kayak Salcombe and Bo’s Beach Cafe.

Far from settling down to learn knitting or take up gardening, Jill is already planning to trek the Semien Mountains in Ethiopia in aid of Sense in October and was off to play two hours of badminton when we spoke to her on Tuesday.

If you would like to donate to Jill’s charities, you can via the website: http://tinyurl.com/JillBeavis

You can find out more about the work of Sense on their website: www.sense.org.uk, The Fisherman’s Reading Room on the Hope Cove website: http://tinyurl.com/FishermansReadingRoom and The Hope Cove Lifeboat on their website: www.hopecovelifeboat.org.