Whilst travelling to work in June 2017, my son Callum was involved in very serious road traffic collision. On arrival at hospital, he was immediately put through the CT scanner and this showed that he had broken both legs, had a ruptured diaphragm, broken 2 vertebrae and various other serious injuries. Callum was immediately rushed into theatre for over 20 hours of surgery.

Due to being in an induced coma, Callum had no knowledge of the injuries he had sustained or that he had his leg amputated until he woke some weeks later. Callum’s story can be seen and read at www.Deboys.co.uk.

Callum became very positive about life after his accident and only a year after losing his leg took up the sport of Para Nordic Sit Skiing. He now competes for Great Britain and wants to reach his goal of the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing, China and compete for his country.

He is well on track to achieving his goal, after only skiing for 8 months he has competed in 3 World Cup races and competed at Para Nordic World Championships where he is currently ranked 30th in the world and is setting times good enough to qualify for 3 years’ time (https://www.gbsnowsport.com/parasnowsport/para-nordic/callum-deboys)

Although he has achieved so much it comes at a cost, skiing is very expensive from accommodation, flights, equipment, training fees etc. It all mounts up and that’s why we’re doing this fund raising row and we need your help.

After seeing Callum do so well after such a traumatic event and having to face a whole load of new challenges not only in sport but in life also, I thought I would set my own challenge with the help of some of my friends to raise funds for some of the kit that he will need along the way and we are looking to raise enough to buy him 3 sets of skis and other equipment to help him compete.

Myself and John Ireland will be rowing from Fort William up the Caledonian Canal route all the way to Inverness, around 60 miles in a Wemyss Skiff, with support from our friends Eddie and Ruth Scott. We will be commencing on the 11th May 2019 and we are scheduled to finish on the 13th May 2019. John not being one to back down from a challenge and an accomplished open water swimmer, as well as rowing he will also be swimming across the breadth of every loch we encounter on the journey, Loch Linnhe, Loch Lochy, Loch Oich, Loch Ness and Loch Dochfour and to finish off he will also swim across the Beauly Firth.

We will also have a support/safety boat crewed by Ruth and Eddie Scott, both who I hope will row part of the way or at least cox for us.

Look out for us on our journey along the way and give us your support.

Thank you for reading our crowdfunding page and if you can donate anything, we would very much appreciate it.