Three women are attempting a 3,000 mile (4,800 km) charity row across the Atlantic after meeting for the first time through an online advert.
Olivia Stocks, Megan Neely, and Jenna Vincent are competing in the 2026 World’s Toughest Row in a record-breaking endeavour to be the youngest female team to row the Atlantic.
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Team member Jenna Vincent, 25, from Poole in Dorset, is no stranger to undertaking athletic feats in the name of charity, having previously cycled the length of the UK to raise money for the Forest Holme Hospice.
This year she is supporting them again, tackling the challenge in memory of her godmother and her grandmother who spent their final days being cared for by the hospice.
Jenna said: “I’ll be forever grateful for the care they gave my family, so being able to give something back through this challenge means a huge amount to me.”
The women, who call themselves Just Row With It, will set off from the Canary Islands in December.
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They will row across shark-infested waters to reach the Caribbean about 60 days later.
In preparation, the women have spent six days a week at the gym and enjoyed extended rowing sessions, with their longest lasting nearly two days.
They collectively have a fundraising target of £75,000.
Front to back: Jenna, Olivia, and Megan will face “huge waves, sleep deprivation, extreme weather conditions and physical and mental demands” [Jenna Vincent]
Jenna wants to inspire women to “take on challenges that might initially seem completely out of reach”.
She said: “You don’t have to feel fearless to do something extraordinary. Sometimes you just have to be willing to give it a go, even when you’re scared or unsure of yourself.”
Beyond this, they are each motivated by “giving back” to causes they admire.
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Jenna said Forest Holme Hospice Charity first treated her and her brother like family while visiting her godmother there at 11-years-old.
Later, during the pandemic, Forest Holme gave her family further respite when her grandmother was also diagnosed with cancer.
Jenna said: “I’d never met the girls before signing up for the challenge” [Jenna Vincent]
Megan, from Swindon, who has been an avid rower for five years, is supporting the Best Mates mission after meeting its co-founder.
The charity works to help people through financial, emotional and physical support, by assigning them a “mate” they can vent to.
Meanwhile, Olivia, who comes from Yorkshire, is honouring her childhood best-friend Luke, who lost his life to cancer at 17.
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She is fundraising for the Shining Light charity that supports the Leeds and Newcastle teenage cancer units where Luke was looked after.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
