Thanks for taking the time to visit The Oarsome Seven JustGiving page.
My name is James Allen and I am the "team skipper" of The Oarsome Seven. I’m hoping to raise a large amount of money for two charities that I have a strong personal connection with: Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) and Motor Neurone Disease.
To do this, I have enlisted the help of some close and rather foolish friends to do this via a 35km charitable row across The English Channel in a Cornish Gig, which is planned for 24 May 2013. (If you’ve never seen one of these, it’s simply a large wooden rowing boat!)
My ‘Oarsome Seven’ crew is made up of Charlie Alexander, Crispin Clay, Toby Colls, James Erith, Oliver Lister and Mark Shennan. Apart from Charlie, who hasn't rowed in 20 years, we have absolutely no rowing experience whatsoever - unless you count paddling on The Mere at Thorpeness.
Why these two charities?
- My sister was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) in 2010 with secondary cancer in the Liver. TNBC affects only 15% breast cancer sufferers and as such the research for this particular strand has been limited, even though it is one of the most aggressive forms.
- My father was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, (MND) two years ago and over that time we have seen him lose the strength in his legs and more recently his arms. He is now totally reliant upon his wife Penny and carers.
The seven of us are starting off from a staggeringly low level of fitness and we are making large personal commitments in terms of training and alcohol and food restraint.
Let’s hope we’ll be fit enough to actually complete the row to France, which will take anywhere between 4 to 8 hours of solid rowing - depending on tidal currents, weather conditions, container ships, passenger ferries ... and fitness.
Your support will help make a real difference to these two charities - and encourage us to row that bit harder and quicker - so please dig deep and donate now. All monies raised will go direct to the charities.
We have a facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheOarsomeSeven and we are also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheOarsomeSeven where you can follow our training and progress.
Many thanks indeed,
Jim Allen
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