 COVERED from head to toe in thick, black sludge, he looked more like a creature from the black lagoon than a man who had just earned his place in the history books. But yesterday, in a daring early morning challenge, Graham Boanas became the first person to walk across the River Mersey. And, despite fearing he could be washed away with the tide as he struggled to cross the half-way point, the 6ft 9in father-of-two made it in just 48 minutes 38 seconds. Mr Boanas took the plunge at 8am, wading in at the edge of the saltmarsh at Ince Banks, near Ellesmere Port. Everything went according to plan until he hit the mudbank dividing the river at its mid-way point. Struggling to cross, he ended up crawling on his hands and knees through the mud, which was quickly disappearing beneath him. His supporters feared he would have to abandon his historic challenge. But when the 43-year-old thought about the children with the skin-blistering condition, epidermolysis bullosa (EB) he was trying to raise money for, he kept going. He said: "When I hit the mudbank, I was crawling on my hands and knees. "My thighs started shaking and all my muscles were burning. It may sound strange, but, when I thought about why I was doing it, it made it easy. "I went through an hour's worth of pain, but the children who have EB have a lifetime of it. They are in agony 24 hours a day, so it made it easy to keep going. "The water was deeper than I expected. I have done a couple of practice runs to the half-way point, but the river is changing all the time. "It came up to about 5ft. If it had gone up by another few inches, I think I would have been swept away. "The hardest part is trudging through the sand and mud, it's exhausting. "You just have to keep moving all the time and go for it. | 
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