Shropshire Star

Father-of-three hoping to become first disabled person to row the Pacific Ocean solo

He is used to battling against to odds in extreme feats of endurance, but Richard Wood is planning to take on his most daunting challenge yet – aiming to become the first disabled person to row an ocean solo.

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The father of three is preparing to cross the Pacific in a specially adapted boat, despite being unable to walk unaided, or drive due to difficulty with his vision on his left side.

But it will not be the first time the veteran rower, who lives in the Kington area on the south Shropshire border, will be taking to the waves for an epic challenge.

Richard became the 11th person to row solo from Canary Islands to Barbados across the Atlantic in 2004 raising £50,000 for St Richard's Hospice, and wrote a book about his adventure called Naked Ambition: My Quest to Row an Ocean.

Richard Wood has already rowed the Atlantic

It was as he was preparing to make a another epic trip, a 20,000-mile round-the-world voyage with five other rowers, when he suffered a sudden stroke while at home.

The super-fit ocean rower said he felt despair, anger and confusion as the stroke hit him in the prime of life, and completing the smallest task became as daunting as his previous athletic feats.

That was in December 2006.

It was 106 days before he left hospital, longer than the 101 days it had taken him to cross the Atlantic, and it has been years of work, including with a specialist neuro-physiotherapist, to regain his fitness to a level where rowing an ocean seems possible, he said.

Richard Wood

Today he said he had made peace with what had happened to him.

He said: "In some ways you might think 'oh how the mighty have fallen' but would I have changed anything? I don't think so."

He said the stroke was not thought to have been related to pushing his body to extremes previously.

"Medics think what happened to me was just because my number came up, not because of the training and the huge stresses of the row itself," he said.

"Life is worth living and we only get one shot at it.

"I feel so far I have lived mine to the full, not much to regret about that!

"I now want to prove there is life after stroke by achieving a world first, to become the first disabled rower to row the Pacific solo.

"It is ironic that it took a life-threatening brain bleed to find a world first."

However he said it may be some time before he will be setting off, as while he was physically ready, he needed backing – and a boat – for the attempt.

"All it needs now is someone or an organisation with some vision and belief to sponsor me on this latest quest," he said.

"Leaving for the trip will entirely depend on securing a sponsor as until that happens I cannot commission my new adapted boat for the attempt.

"And once that has been built I need to allow a good time for sea trials."

He said the boat would need to be specially adapted as he only had full use of his right arm.

“This is a huge undertaking and, as such, it needs the right equipment to have a fighting chance of success.

"In all sorts of other areas of sport, millions are invested in enabling perfectly fit and healthy advantaged individuals to achieve their dream – they have everything and are disadvantaged in no way.

"Winning a gold medal for yourself and your country is fantastic, but to achieve a world first for yourself and your sponsor I would consider even greater, especially against all odds," he said.

For more information on Richard's record attempt visit his blog at http:xtremerowing.blogspot.co.uk or contact him by email at richmessages@live.com.

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