A FAMILY made a splash at a national awards ceremony after being crowned unsung swimming stars.

Jason Tait and his wife Denise, along with their children Ben and Maya, raised £600 for the cancer charity Marie Curie after taking part in a swimathon.

The Tait family, of Oakhurst, were nominated for the family of the year award at the 2012 Kellogg’s ASA Swimtastic Awards and walked away with the prize on Saturday.

They travelled to Ponds Forge, in Sheffield, to swim with the stars of British swimming, including Paralympics’ double gold medalist Ellie Simmonds, before the awards evening.

In April, Jason and Ben, five, signed up for a swimathon in Oakhurst and decided to add Denise as a joke. The family ended up completing the swimathon with three-year-old Maya, raising £600.

Jason said: “This has been an incredible year which we will never forget. Swimming has provided us with opportunities we could never have imagined – including a new career path into aquatics for myself and now winning an award for Swimtastic, which we are completely overwhelmed by.”

For details on swimming, visit www.swimming.org