Junior doctors get ready at Canary Wharf to face Indian Ocean shark challenge
Junior doctors Ted Welman and Jack Faulkner in trainig at Canary Wharf for their 3,600-mile ocean rowing attempt - Credit: Main Event PR
Two junior doctors in London are planning to row 3,500 miles across shark-invested waters of the Indian Ocean.
Ted Welman and Jack Faulkner were in training at Canary Wharf today in a 100-mile ‘static rowing’ challenge against members of Brickendon management Consultancy as a “warm up” for next month’s ocean rowing.
They’ve given up their careers for a few months to raise £100,000 in aid of Medecins sans Frontieres medical charity, now they’ve completed their training.
Ted was at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, Jack at St Thomas’s near London Bridge.
Their record-breaking fundraiser attempt is costing them £80,000 out of their own pockets. But they have already raised a further £35,000 towards their £100,000 target for the charity.
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“Only four pairs have ever done this row,” Ted told the East London Advertiser. “But we’re the first doctors to attempt it–and we hope to be the fastest.”
Ocean rowing remains one of the toughest endurance tests known to Mankind. Some 4,000 people have climbed Everest, 536 have gone into Space, but only 20 boats have rowed the Indian Ocean.
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The pair set off from Geralton, in Western Australia, and row two-hour on, two hours off, round-the-clock 24 hours a day for 3,600 miles, battling hurricane-force winds and 50ft waves while three months at sea until they reach Mauritius. This follows roughly the path of migrating shark.
They are at their challenge at Canary Wharf’s Jubilee Place shopping mall, next to Wagamama, till 8pm tonight (Tues).
The intrepid doctors fly out to Australia on Sunday for their attempt, then return to London in August to begin their surgery training in earnest–proving the sharks don’t get them first.