Rowers enduring the \u201cbrutal\u201d challenge of circumnavigating Britain to raise nearly \u00a360 million for charity have landed in Scotland.<\/p>\n
The Row4MND team disembarked at the village of Port Logan in Dumfries and Galloway at around 4.20am on Saturday after rowing overnight from Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
The four-strong crew are trying to raise \u00a357 million to help find a cure for motor neurone disease (MND).<\/p>\n
The men have battled low temperatures, gales and heavy seas as they traverse thousands of miles round the British coastline.<\/p>\n
The ROW4MND team hopes to raise \u00a357 million by circumnavigating Great Britain Credit: ROW4MND\/Athena Agency\/PA<\/p>\n
They set off from South Wales last weekend but were forced to take a detour to Northern Ireland, where they became stormbound.<\/p>\n
From there, they rowed to the south-west of Scotland and will soon take on the rest of the nation\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n
Row4MND co-founder, business leader Matt Parker, said the challenge is \u201ca hell of a lot of hard work\u201d.<\/p>\n
But unlike those with MND, the Scot said he and his three friends could choose to do the challenge, which they hope will help scientists find a cure for the disease.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Press Association, he said: \u201cWhen it\u2019s two in the morning, in the pitch black, in the fog, with the sea smashing the boat around, with your oars going in different directions, when you\u2019ve been rowing for seven days, two hours on, two hours off, and you\u2019re cold \u2013 it\u2019s brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mr Parker, originally from Kilmarnock but who now lives in Surrey, said he has never doubted whether the challenge is worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the best thing I\u2019ve ever done in my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s brutal but never miserable, never unhappy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be lying if I said you don\u2019t think \u2018why on Earth am I doing this\u2019 every so often.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you suddenly ask yourself that question, and then you think about it, and I know exactly why I\u2019m doing this, and this is great. I\u2019m so lucky that I get to do something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crew of ROW4MND at the Forth Bridge near Edinburgh after finishing a previous charity row in August last year Credit: Jane Barlow\/PA<\/p>\n
Mike Bates, fellow co-founder and an experienced ocean rower, said the conditions have not always been good to the rowers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe weather wasn\u2019t on our side, but we\u2019ve still managed to cover an incredible 250 nautical miles over the past week, and we spent some valuable time gelling as a crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have achieved our objective of getting to Scotland, with the added bonus that we also visited Northern Ireland: a true United Kingdom adventure.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur next, and arguably toughest, leg will see us complete our circumnavigation of Great Britain, by traversing the rest of the Scottish coastline, including the Western Isles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be re-launching in early May to complete this challenge, having to contend with vicious tides and unpredictable seas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once the crew has completed their current challenge, they will focus on crossing the Pacific \u2013 from California to Hawaii \u2013 in 2027, before attempting the world record row between New York and London in 2028.<\/p>\n
Row4MND is raising money for three charities searching for a cure to MND: the Motor Neurone Disease Association, the My Name\u20195 Doddie Foundation, and Leeds Hospitals Charity.<\/p>\n
From Westminster to Washington DC – our political experts are across all the latest key talking points. Listen to the latest episode below… <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rowers enduring the \u201cbrutal\u201d challenge of circumnavigating Britain to raise nearly \u00a360 million for charity have landed in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-475483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}