In 2015 my daughter and I visited Vienna together. We were tourists staying in a hotel, visiting the opera and enjoying some relaxing time with good food, luxury and leisure.

Our hotel overlooked the main railway station. From our rooms on the 7th floor we could see hundreds of refugees, living in tents or simply in sleeping bags on the street. We later walked among them, shopped for groceries along-side them and watched, uncomfortable, as they queued to receive basic shelter, toiletries and food.

Despite initial trepidation brought on by media reports about refugees 'descending on Europe for a free hand-out', we quickly realised that these people had dignity and pride. There were no appeals for money or help, no begging, no outstretched hands. We were not jostled or impeded in any way. In fact, each small group was making an effort to keep its little patch of concrete tidy and organised and they made sure the pavement was clear for pedestrians to walk by. These were orderly, polite people placed in an impossibly difficult situation.

Among the refugees were many children. We did not see many of them playing - they were too busy assisting the adults with erecting tents, fetching supplies or securing a small patch of concrete to sleep on that night.

The sight of all these women, children and men, patiently waiting for Europe to do the right thing, made my daughter and me deeply uncomfortable. We were staying in a budget hotel, luxurious by comparison to their accommodation, eating whatever and whenever we wanted to and at our leisure to stay or leave as we pleased - a stark contrast to their living conditions.

As we watched from my room while deciding what to do with our day, I thought about my daughter being in that situation. She never will be. Living in the USA with a second home available to her in the UK, she'll never experience war, famine, religious persecution or displacement. But the idea that she could have done had she just been born in a different place and time made the plight of these children very real to me.

I'm not especially athletic. In fact, I'm decidedly 'chunky' and I do like my creature comforts. So, in order to raise a little money to help children like the ones we saw in Vienna, I've decided to experience a tiny fraction of the discomfort they must have felt by testing my mind and body throughout 2017.

My challenge is to use a Concept2 indoor rowing machine to row 3,900 Km (2,423 miles) by December 31 this year. That's the equivalent distance of a circumnavigation of the British Isles.

I'll have to row 12 Km (7.5 miles) every day for 325 days in order to achieve this. It takes me 1 hour to row 12 Km.

Please donate whatever you can to help children around the world, relieve those already suffering and help prevent more of them from experiencing the degradation, physical discomfort and emotional trauma caused by war and religious fundamentalism.

Thank you.

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