Have you ever rowed a boat on a lake? Or been in a pedalo? I haven’t.

But in 4 months I am going to be rowing 300km, on the open sea, from Ibiza to Barcelona.

It’ll take 4 days (if we’re lucky, 6 if we’re not).

We’ll be gripping oars for 12 hours a day.

That’s almost 50 hours of constant rowing in 4 days.

You’ve probably got questions…

Will blisters cover our hands within hours? Yes. Will it feel like we are sitting on shards of glass? Yes. Will we be rowing in 30-degree heat, sunburnt, dehydrated and getting friction burns from the sea salt on our skin? Yes. Will we have to sh*t in a bucket in front of one another and pray when we ‘chuck it’ that it doesn’t return to the boat to pay us another visit? Also yes.

How do you even train to row 12 hours a day and cross an ocean?

Well, there’s the physical side - 12 months ago I bought a rowing machine and right now I’m rowing 250-300km per month (over 2 million meters in the last 16 months).

But it’s not just about fitness.

We have to be prepared to survive at sea and know what to do if our boat flips over and throws us all overboard. We have to learn how to navigate when all we see are the sea and the stars. We have to practice first aid to know what to do if someone gets ‘secondary drowning’ i.e. drowning even when they are not in the water (yep, that’s a thing). And we have to figure out how to use a VHF radio so we can call for help if it all goes wrong.

Oh and there’ll be one practice row, 8hrs, overnight, in Southampton.

They say you don’t know what ‘dark’ is until you’ve been at sea, in the dead of night, not knowing where the pitch sky ends and the deep, seemingly bottomless sea begins.

So, obvious question - why?

Because in life you have to have challenges.

Challenges force you to learn new things, get fitter, wiser and keep life interesting.

They stop you from just going through the daily motions and forgetting where the years went.

Half of this challenge, the event itself, is in my control. The other half though, is in yours.

I am taking on this challenge as part of the NOMAN Race to End HPV.

HPV causes 5% of ALL cancers (that’s 1 million people worldwide), but a simple vaccine prevents it.

NOMAN works to raise awareness to ensure doctors give these vaccines to young girls and boys.

And so the second part of the challenge is to raise £10,000 to help them in their mission.

To do this, I need you to donate.

Donate £50 today, type in your card details, or use Apple Pay, or PayPal they take pretty much payment method out there.

You could do it tomorrow, or next week, but you’ll forget.

If you’re willing to do your part, I’ll keep up my end of the deal and make sure we make it to dry land so you can laugh at my sunburnt, wiry physique.

£50 today will mean countless people are saved from cancer tomorrow.

Do it now, then the next time you see my ask pop up you’ll get that warm feeling knowing you don’t have to try and avoid me appearing in your inbox.