World-record breaking rower Tom Rainey has posted a heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped him and fellow oarsman Lawrence Walters cross the Atlantic under their own steam earlier this year to raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity.
In August the pair became the youngest ever duo to row from the USA to the UK. In the process they broke the record for the furthest distance rowed on an ocean in 24 hours.
So far their expedition, named Ocean Valour, has raised almost £100,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity – an incredible achievement which will help fund our drive to reduce brain tumour diagnosis delays for adults.
Writing on Facebook, Tom praises the heroic efforts of his Ocean Valour team-mate Lawrence Walters, as well as Sam Coombs – who was due to take part in the trans-Atlantic row until he was hit by a back injury at the 11th hour.
Tom, who lost his father Luke to a brain tumour in 2012, says: “The row became way more than I ever envisaged while planning it in 2013. It showed me that humans will do anything for people they care about and love. And that no matter how bad times are, there will always be something within us that enables us to get back up and fight.”
He says his family and Lawrence’s were their ‘rocks’, coping with their sons doing ‘mad things’ on the ocean.
And Ocean Valour could not have happened without a host of people including the expedition sponsors, the boat-builder and the ground support team, Tom says. He describes the public’s support as ‘insane’.
“The total raised is now £98,850.44 which is down to you guys.”
Sarah Lindsell, chief executive of The Brain Tumour Charity, said: “We’d like to echo every word Tom has written. And we’d like to add our own huge ‘thank you’ to Tom himself, for having the vision and the courage to see Ocean Valour through from beginning to end, raising such an enormous amount of money to help us change things for the better”