Wrekin Rowers hit £100,000 charity target after a month crossing the Atlantic
Shropshire's Wrekin Rowers have hit their £100,000 fundraising target as they approach the end of their 3,000-mile row across the Atlantic.
The moment came at just before 3.30pm on Thursday with the team just over 100 miles from the finishing line, when an anonymous £400 donation on their Just Giving Page pushed them over the line. As of Thursday afternoon the total was £100,543.
"OH MY GOD!!!!! Thank you to every single person who has donated, you are all so generous and incredible," the team announced on Instagram.
"We’re not going to tell them, so this can be the best surprise for the boys when this is announced at the finish we are all so overwhelmed and cannot thank you enough for the continuous support. THEY MADE THEIR TARGET!!!!!!"
With Antigua now within striking distance, the Wellington oarsmen Stuart Shepherd, Gary Richards, Martin Skehan and Stuart Richards, are expected to finish sometime tomorrow.
Earlier, celebrity adventurer Ben Fogle sent a morale-boosting message to the four rowers as they closed in on the finish line, days after the team listened in as a sea shanty, written by rower Martin Skehan, was performed in Wellington town centre.
There was drama earlier in the voyage when the rowers' boat was hit and punctured by a giant marlin fish with a swordfish-like spear. Thankfully, a sandwich-box lid managed to plug the leak.
The Wrekin Rowers are fundraising for Severn Hospice and the RNIB here: https://www.justgiving.com/team/wrekin-rowers
