Over the August bank holiday (26-27th August 2022), Ben Huntington and I will be paddling 115 miles down the River Severn (the longest river in Britain), from Crewe Green, Shropshire to Gloucester, Gloucestershire in a two-man Canadian canoe. This is a journey that takes most people 4-5 days or more, but we will be attempting to cover the distance in less than two days! We are undertaking this sponsored canoe-trip because Ben and I love a challenge and we want to raise funds to contribute towards getting Dani, my first cousin, back on his feet following his 2-year battle with Long Covid.

Longer distance canoe tripping is an activity that Dani and I have a long history of doing, and it seems very appropriate that Ben and I will be undertaking this significant challenge to try and help Dani and his family. Alongside the 115miles of paddling, we will be navigating many additional hazards, including: weirs, locks, rapids and ducks!

Dani lives in Canada with his family and is one of my closest friends. Despite the distance, we spent a lot of summers together. We have a shared love of working outside and enjoy outdoor activities such as canoeing, climbing and camping. Dani and I worked together at a summer camp for many years in our late teens and he was an usher at my wedding. We have been looking forward to taking our kids (who are all close in age) out on trips as they get older. Over the summer of 2020, my family and I were due to visit Dani, his wife and young son in the Canadian Rockies Mountains; however, we were unable to due to lockdown and Dani’s condition.

Dani is a highly qualified mountain guide (training for which took 10 years) and worked year-round managing a heli-ski, heli-hiking/climbing lodge in British Columbia; a position held by less than a handful of guides in North America. His work involved managing staff and protecting and guiding clients participating in extreme winter and summer mountain sports, an industry that he has worked in for over 20 years. In March 2020 Dani contracted Covid-19 while at work and went on to develop pronounced physical and psychological Long Covid symptoms. This resulted in multiple organ damage and rendered him unable to see properly, focus on routine tasks or walk 500m; let alone return to his previous high-intensity job. Over the next 18 months a variety of treatment regimens (much of which were very costly) led to his condition waxing and waning, until his condition worsened in autumn 2021 and he was air-lifted to hospital, requiring 4 operations including open-heart surgery, from which he was lucky to survive. His condition has since improved, but he still suffers from multiple Long Covid symptoms, has compromised circulation to his left foot and an as-yet unresolved brain aneurysm (ballooning blood vessel in the brain that could burst and cause a stroke) which makes a return to his former profession very difficult and dangerous.

We will be setting off at around dawn on Friday 26th August and will be hoping for good weather, favourable currents and ideally lots of enthusiastic supporters along the way. All being well we should reach Gloucester just before sunset on Saturday 27th August but there is a lot of water between the two so fingers crossed! If you would like to support Ben and I in our efforts to assist Dani and his family by sponsoring this trip then we would be really grateful.

Thank you,

Nathan Loewenstein

Dani and Nathan out on the glacial ice