From Source to City – that’s a wrap!

252km, 45 lock portages, 4 days paddling, for one great charity - REACT Disaster Response.

On Sunday 26th July I finished my challenge to kayak the entire navigable length of the River Thames from the source in the Cotswolds to PwC’s office in Embankment - in just 4 days, solo, with no support team - to raise funds for a truly remarkable charity.

I first deployed with this incredible organisation within 24 hours of the disastrous 2023 earthquake in Morocco, witnessing at first-hand how REACT repurposes the skills of military veterans, emergency responders and wider humanitarians to bring hope, empathy and critical support to the most vulnerable and hardest to reach in their darkest hour.

But this is also about supporting a ‘whole of society’ approach to UK Resilience, as we face more varied, volatile and interconnected risks at home. REACT now has highly trained volunteer responders covering every county in the UK, plugged into local resilience structures and ready to deploy quickly into their own communities. Our most recent UK deployments include supporting extreme weather, evacuation and mass casualty events.

But we can do more - and we need financial support to deepen our impact. My own fundraising goal of £5,000 would fund 200 medical trauma kits for our Ukrainian NGO partners, the deployment of a hurricane support team, or train a 12-person UK flood team to respond to severe flooding across the UK.

This paddle was hard work, and the Thames really threw its challenges at me - heatwave temperatures, lower than usual water levels, no river flow above the tidal section, back-breaking portages carrying 4 days of kit around 45 locks, tidal swell and waves, and even a swan attack! But with your support and generosity, we can make a real difference for people who desperately need our help at home and overseas. Please donate what you can.

252km, 45 locks, 4 days, One REACT