Jess, Phil and Gary are three friends taking on the ultimate challenge of rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic as part of the 'Worlds Toughest Row'. This isn't just to challenge ourselves in every possible way, but is to raise awareness, promote and gain vital funds for two really important charities.

Severn Hospice provides a vital service, playing a part in all of our lives, personally and professionally. The Hospice cares for people across Shropshire and Powys, looking after 3,000 families last year alone. Their work is fully dependent on charitable funds, with 87p in every £1 donated spent on caring in the Hospices, with Community Nurses, and additional services including Complementary Therapies and Lymphoedema management.

Choosing this charity is especially poignant in view of the loss of two of our rowing friends last year to cancer - Marc Christian and Gary Richards with Gary having taken part in the same challenge in 2021. Both of who were cared for by Severn Hospice and their team. Phil also talks of how in 2015 his family received the news that his mum (Helen) had been diagnosed with MND (motor neurone disease), and In late 2017, was given a bed in the Shrewsbury Severn Hospice. The Hospice team worked around the clock to care for his mum and also for his family, with Helen sadly passing away on the 19th December 2017.

Our second charity is the British Heart Foundation, who work to make “a world free of heart and circulatory diseases”. Jess is in healthcare and has obviously encountered these conditions professionally, but there remain personal reasons for Jess, Phil and Gary, as well as their close friends to support the BHF.

Close friend and rowing companion Deb talks about the tragic death of her husband Steve age 43, despite being extremely fit, dying suddenly of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy - a congenital condition he was completely unaware of. Cardiac conditions and disease continue to affect so many and the British Heart Foundation is set on improving care, research and outcomes for all.