ROWING 200 miles from Ibiza to Barcelona in 41 degree heat would be a challenge even with months of fitness training.

For someone who more or less accidentally took up the challenge it was almost literally hell on waves.
Will Heward, a 35-year-old boat builder from Bridport, was roped into the fundraising challenge for the charity NOMAN which is trying to raise awareness of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) – the causal agent of five percent of all cancers, when the six-man team found itself a man down.

Will was there as part of the support crew when he was offered the chance to take part. He’d been planning to row the Atlantic with his cousin in the future so felt he had no excuse to say no.
He said: “I thought if I say no now it would never happen we are never.

“I am told aAlthough the Atlantic will take longer, the conditions we rowed in with the heat is something that you would never experience in the Atlantic.

“That was the biggest challenge overcoming the heat and dehydration. It was absolute hell.

“I only stood in because they were a crew member down. I was actually on the support yacht and they were looking for someone. I thought it was an unbelievable opportunity.

“I build boats for a company called SeaSabre in Axminster and that is how we ended up doing the support making sure everything was alright.

“It was 41 degree heat during the day, doing an hour on and an hour off. We had to deal with the heat, dehydration and we did it in 80hours. Someone was rowing for 24 hours a day.

“With your hour off you would have to wash and dry yourself and also need to find time to rest, eat and rehydrate.

“It was the toughest thing I have ever done in my life. I can sum it up as oOne of the greatest experiences but also as one of the worst at the same time.

Bridport and Lyme Regis News:

Will Heward at the oars

“Mentally I was up and down, up and down, it was very challenging. Fitness would have helped me but I think The hardest challenge was mentally, being able to stick it out and still be able to keep going at four, five in the morning and then by 9, 10 the sun was up and you could hardly do anything just literally keep moving the boat with some form of forward momentum and wait for the sun to go down at five or six in the evening where you could power up again.”

Having had no time to raise money before taking part Will is now trying to help raise awareness for the charity.

All six participants, Adi Misra-Godwin, 29, Eoin Hartwright,18, Stephanie Jones, 27, Justin Coleman, 50, Al Flowers, 26, and Will rowed to raise awareness of Human Papillomavirus (HPV).

HPV causes anal, cervical, penile, vaginal, vulvar and, head and neck cancer along with genital warts and laryngeal papillomas. Because HPV has been most closely associated with cervical cancer, it has leading to the misconception that HPV is a women-only issue. HPV-related cancers are rising dramatically in men but below the belt cancers are considered taboo. They can be entirely eliminated through vaccinating however, and particularly at 11-12, when immune response is highest and before intimate contact.