It is truly unfortunate that we at some point will or have all been affected by Cancer. My Dad passed away in December after loosing his fight with a Brain Tumour.
He was a great inspiration to many people including myself and is sorely missed. 
During his battle there were many people that offered support to him and our family and when he was hospitalised in September the team at Macmillan in Christchurch were incredible. The facility they run is almost entirely funded through the charity itself and my Dad was keen to raise money for them. In my Dad's final few weeks he ran a fundraising night to this end. He also asked me if in the future I could do something to help.

This was hammered home when my Dad's Brother my Uncle Martin passed away after a short but very aggressive battle with Cancer earlier this year.

To fulfil my Dad's wish I wanted to choose something tough, and whilst it pales in comparison to the battle that many people fight every day with various types of this disease my hope is that by doing this it will help fund a great unit that makes the battle that bit easier.

The plan is to do a series of challenges building up to the ultimate challenge this August.

I'll be joined by some great friends and paddlers on all of these challenges, some raising money for this great cause as well as a few others.

Having already completed Challenge 1, Bournemouth - Brighton and Challenge 2, Lefkada - Kefalonia, Challenge 3 is GO! Tuesday 19th is when 3 friends and I will attempt to paddle the widest point of the English Channel - Alderney to Poole...

Challenge 1: Bournemouth to Brighton by SUP- 80 Nautical Miles along the south coast to then join and Race at Paddle round the pier. I'll be joined on this journey by good friend and top paddler Jo Hamilton-Vale.

Challenge2: Paddling from Lefkada to Kefalonia and back across the Domus Channel one of the busiest shipping routes on the west coast.

Challenge 3: This August, myself and a team of fellow paddlers will be attempting to be the first people on Stand Up Paddleboards to paddle from the channel islands back to Poole. The distance as the crow flies is 80 miles or 113km. 
Our window of opportunity is in the third week of August where the tides will be at their kindest. We already have some great support from several people and would love to raise as much money as possible for this challenge.

Challenge 1 starts on the 2nd go July at 6:30am

Thanks for the support

Sam