Yorkshire student paramedics plan Atlantic rowing challenge

Three University of Bradford student paramedics are planning to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic to raise money for charity.

The team - known as Par-oar-medics - comprise third-year students Ken Bordt, Tom Dowdy and Ethan Chapman.

They decided to take on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge - officially known as the world’s toughest row - to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support, Stroke Association UK, and the Ambulance Staff Charity. They are looking for sponsors.

Former chef Mr Bordt, 40, originally from Zimbabwe, has previously taught scuba diving in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia but has almost no experience of rowing.

He said: “I have always had a great affinity for the ocean, I lived by the sea for a long time and I have long harboured an ambition to take on a challenge that involves the ocean. I originally began researching sailing around the world but stumbled on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge and I was hooked."

Mr Dowdy, 24, said: “I’ve taken part in a number of strange events in my life, including completing the Yorkshire Three Peaks while carrying a double bass, I’ve done some ice climbing and I once cycled from London to Santander, but this will be by far the most bonkers thing I have ever done.”

Mr Chapman, 21, from Lancaster, said: “In a way it doesn’t seem real yet, and we’re aware it will be difficult to train at the same time as entering our final year, but we are all up for the challenge.”

The trio, all of whom have just completed their sandwich year as part of a four-year paramedic degree, will begin their challenge in December 2024 from La Gomera in the Canary Islands and end in Antigua. Between now and then, they have to canvas support, find sponsors, and raise enough money to buy a boat in which to compete.

Mr Bordt added: “We will be rowing two-hours on, two-hours off for about 30 days, and we have to carry all our own food and water."

Commenting on the University of Bradford’s paramedic course, Mr Bordt said: “It’s the only programme in the country that offers a sandwich year in year three, which means we go out on the road and work with actual clinicials on the front line, which is such a valuable learning process, and I think it means Bradford’s course is head and shoulders above the rest.”

Since 2012, the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge has been organised by Atlantic Campaigns and is now the world’s safest and most successful ocean rowing race.

In 2016 a team of four women from North Yorkshire completed an Atlantic rowing race and became the oldest all-woman crew to row any ocean. The Yorkshire Rows team included Niki Doeg, 44, Helen Butters, 45, Frances Davies, 47, and Janette Benaddi, 51.