Welcome - To the World Record Row blog

The support of everyone in town over the last two years has just been phenomenal and through public donations alone we have raised over £13,000. A sponsorship package for both local and national companies has now been created to help us raise even more in the hope of hitting our fundraising target of £55,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

Bronze                      - for a minimum donation of £ 100

Silver                         - for a minimum donation of £ 500

Gold                           - for a minimum donation of £ 1,000

All Bronze, Silver and Gold Sponsors will receive a letter of thanks and a framed certificate to be displayed in your offices. 

As a Silver Sponsor you will also have your Company logo and a link to your website featured on the sponsors’ area of the challenge website  and an entry in the blog of the Row which has a fan base of over 5,000 followers across 7 Facebook groups.

Additionally I would be delighted to provide a motivational talk for your team concerning the rowing challenge and your company will also receive entry into a prize draw to win a special rowing Oar that has been signed by Sarah Winckless (Double-World Champion, Olympic Medallist and inaugural chair of the British Olympic Athletes Association).

 Our Gold Sponsors will of course receive everything included with the other packages but your company logo will also be featured prominently on the ‘Champions of the Row’ Banner that will be suspended directly behind the rowing machine for the final month of the challenge. This will afford your company excellent exposure to local and national Media & Press during a number of photo events and interviews. Most importantly, all Gold Sponsors will have local press attend their office for a special Cheque Presentation Ceremony which will be captured by photographers and feature in the local newspaper recognising your generous contribution.

If your company would be interested in sponsoring the rowing challenge, please pop down to see me in town if you have any questions or if you would prefer you can email on info@worldrecordrow.com or call 07737 322483.

We will also be holding a charity auction to raise much needed funds for this wonderful charity just before Christmas this year – if you feel you couldn’t make a cash donation to Breakthrough but would be happy to donate an auction prize then again I would be absolutely delighted to hear from you.

Thank you,

Dave x

Current Location – South Atlantic

32059km rowed… 7016 km remaining

Goodness me, what a scorcher! Glorious sunshine over the last few weeks has caused me to sweat off at least half a stone in weight which bearing in mind I’m built like a twiglet anyway meant I was on the verge of disappearing altogether. Fortunately I’ve developed a love of eccles cakes and although the weight is sitting in all the wrong places I’m hoping I won’t be vanishing into a sweaty puddle just yet. We’ve got some great fundraising dates coming up so I’ve got everything crossed that the pennies will keep coming in over the summer months.

Last month I was very honoured to be invited to the Place To Be Proud Of Awards in Festival Place – particularly delighted with the fact that we got to eat lots of chicken and potatoes. I was thrilled to be nominated but genuinely didn’t expect it to go any further, consequently I had a little glass of wine and being the complete and utter lightweight that I am it went to straight to my  head. The last award of the night was the Judge’s Special Award which I managed to pick up and I was so thrilled that I pulled the most outrageous drunken and sweaty gurn for a photograph for the Gazette – unfortunately it made appearance a few days ago along with the title of ‘Does This Man Deserve To Turn On The Christmas Lights?’. I have to say that I looked at the paper and thought I wouldn’t let that person out of the house until I realised that wine fuelled mad man was me – I’m just so thrilled it was shot torso up as at that point in the evening I’m convinced I’d taken my trousers off and left them somewhere!

Brilliant and lovely chap that he is, Stuart Dimond (of raising lots of pennies for Breakthrough through two fantastic gigs at The Red Lion fame) and I have been banging heads together (just ours, we wouldn’t hurt anyone else) and our in the process of producing a charity CD called ‘The Breakthrough Album’. It will feature fourteen cracking Basingstoke artists (all aged between 15 to 19) and the hope it will not only be a good fundraiser for Breakthrough but also to celebrate what musical talent we have in our home town. They are all amazing and we hope to have the album ready for sale (for £7 and every single penny going to the charity) by the middle of August – I promise I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime I wanted to pop up the album cover, designed by Stu and Cameron – what clever lads they are x

We also received a lovely visit from June of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance to collect over 300 bras that have been so kindly donated over the last two years. I didn’t want to let them go but alas they have gone and to a wonderful home too - the bras have been sent to women in countries across the Third World, a terrific cause. 

A huge thank you to Romy for Jo for donating on our justgiving page - I’ve got my fingers crossed we can crack that £14,000 mark as soon as possible x