A TALENTED East Durham College student - on top of achieving highly on his college course - has been putting in impressive performances for a local swimming club.

Para-swimmer Gareth Orr, 22, joined the college in January this year, enrolling on the college’s Foundation Studies programme.

Dedicated student Gareth has been getting top marks on his course since joining the college and has recently progressed onto a Level 1 Diploma in Employability Skills.

This new course has seen him take on the challenge of completing work experience at East Durham College’s Peterlee campus restaurant Scene1.

But away from the hard work on his college course, Gareth is continuing to go from strength-to-strength in his first love, swimming.

Gareth, who swims for Sunderland Swimming club, picked up number of medals at meets across the country.

He recently won a number of medals at a club championship event at Sunderland before going on to be the only swimming representative for East Durham College at the Association of College’s national championship.

East Durham College Lecturer in Foundation Studies, Laura Richardson said: “Gareth is a fantastic and valued student here at East Durham College and we have seen a huge change in Gareth during this year; his confidence grows every day.

“We are all really proud here at the college of what Gareth has gone on to achieve in his swimming, he is really passionate about it and has a great talent for it, clearly shown through all the medals he’s won throughout this year.”