A resident from Cromer has conquered her fear of the deep blue sea by swimming with sharks to raise money for a local charity.

Lynette Hollis, of Clifton Park, recently took part in a dive with 10 different species of sharks in an aquarium containing more than 10m gallons of water.

She said: 'The experience was bought as a birthday present by my daughter Lehandra for me to take part in a dive at Deep Sea World - Scotland's national aquarium.

'I thought if I'm to provide a meal for a load of sharks, I ought to be doing it for a reason so I decided to help raise money for the Cromer Ladies Lifeboat Guild.

'This is a worthy cause for when other poor unfortunates find themselves in deep water.'

Mrs Hollis said the scariest part of the dive was the initial preparation work of learning how to swim, signal and breathe under water.

But highlights included swimming alongside lobsters, crayfish, fish and an 'enormous' grey shark.

'They were all so beautiful,' she said.

'Once you are down there you can't believe what you are seeing.

'I can understand why people are afraid of sharks but this has changed my perspective of them.'

The scuba enthusiast added that she was 'extremely proud' to hold a banner up in the water displaying that she had raised �260 for the Guild.

'A huge thank you to all who sponsored me - I'm assured the sharks were in no way traumatised.'

Mrs Hollis has now raised a total of �300 for the Guild.

? For all enquiries regarding the Cromer Ladies Lifeboat Guild please ring chairman Beryl Mansell on 01263 512237.