Jesus’ Journey for the Needy

Ten rowers from Jesus College Boat Club, Oxford will be embarking on a marathon row from The Other Place to Cambridge, to raise money for charity.

Feeling the withdrawal from training, the rowers decided to put their addiction to good use, and are aiming to raise £10,000 for charity Headway.

The new route in green – the yellow section is carried

Friends Jonny Woodward and Alex Russman hatched the plan as a way to get some more rowing in after the end of Summer Eights (their May Bumps).

What had started as a humanities student’s joke was quickly turned into a feasible engineer’s plan. After a few safety modifications, such as duct taping crates of empty bottles to stop the boat flipping in the many locks, the 8 was deemed ready to go.

Putting the bottle rafts to good use

The plan is to cover 166 miles, including a grueling 13-mile stretch where they will have to carry their boat, for lack of water to row on. Setting off on the 16^th of September, the plan is to have finished by the 23^rd, meaning there’ll be a bit of waterside camping. Luke Eaton, one of the intrepid adventurers spoke to the Tab: “I’m scared my tent will get blown away while I’m in it. I sleep really badly as it is.”

The Team Mascot – Issaka the Otter

Headway are a charity founded to promote understanding of brain injuries and help support victims and their families, they were chosen after a student at Jesus suffered a brain trauma whilst abroad last Easter.

“We were inspired by some friends who had done a fun run at the start of term for Headway, and we realized it was a good opportunity to fund-raise for Headway” Russman told The Tab.

Follow their progress, and maybe donate here.