I am raising money to help buy a defibrillator for Doncaster Rowing Club.

Why do we need a defibrillator? Well, hopefully we will never have to use it but, in the unfortunate event that someone training in the gym at our boathouse suffers a cardiac arrest, access to a defibrillator on site will significantly improve their chances of survival.

The gym in our boathouse is used by our club members every day of the week. It is a very busy place where you will find rowers, aged from 12 years to 70 odd years training on our gym equipment, which includes indoor rowing machines, exercise bikes and weights.

The boathouse is some distance away from the main road and vehicular access to the park is barred by the park gates which are frequently locked. Due to our location an ambulance or first responder attempting to reach a casualty could experience delays at a critical time. In the circumstances it would make sense to have a fully automatic defibrillator readily accessible to gym users in our boathouse.

What am I doing to raise money? I am planning to row the Boston Rowing Marathon in the single scull boat shown in the photo. The marathon takes place on Sunday 17th September. The course runs 50.2 km (31 miles) down the River Witham from Lincoln to Boston.

I have never really felt comfortable in asking people to sponsor me to do something that I enjoy doing. After all, I will take on the marathon with or without sponsorship but this is a massive challenge for me and I do not expect it to be enjoyable for very long and so it would be great if my efforts inspired you to make a donation to this good cause.

You may have seen my Facebook news-feed, which consists mainly of rowing related stuff, and you'll be wondering why this is such a big challenge for me.

I have, in fact, been rowing for less than 4 years and I have never before competed in a single scull. I first went in a single scull 3 years ago and out of my first ten outings I ended up swimming in the River Don on seven of them. I sculled with all the style and stability of a jelly on a tight rope. Things have improved since then. I have not capsized for 2 years (I don't count the plunge off the landing stage as a capsize) and I have now progressed to the stage where I have all the poise and balance of a blancmange on a plank.

I expect that it will take me about 5 hours to row the 50.2 km from Lincoln to Boston. The course record for my age group is about 4 hours. Can you imagine rowing for 5 hours? I would be shattered if I had to drive my car for 5 hours. I'll be doing this alone with my bony bum perched on a hard little wooden sliding seat, with an oar in each hand and my size 12 feet strapped into a pair of size 11 shoes which are screwed into the boat. It will be about 6000 strokes of hell but I have been training hard for it and I am determined to finish.

So, if any of this inspires you to make a donation, no matter how small, I will be very grateful and the thought of your support and generosity will help get me through the difficult stretches of the Boston Rowing Marathon

If you are interested in finding out more about Doncaster Rowing Club, here's a link to our website DRC . You can also follow us on Twitter at @DoncasterRC