Two Glasgow Uni students will be rowing 3000 miles across the Atlantic for charity

Two Glasgow university students will be rowing 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean in December 2022. Third year physics and astrophysics student Miriam has been rowing for 3 and a half years and fourth year Physics student Nia has been rowing for six years.

The girls will be attempting to break two world records; the youngest all female pair to row across an ocean and the fastest all female pair to row across an ocean. The current record for this is 50 days and five hours. The row will be in aid of the charities Mind and Wellbeing of Women. They will row from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, to English Harbour in Antigua and Barbuda. They will be rowing in shifts of two hours on and two hours off to keep the boat moving.

Nia (left) and Miriam (right)

When asked what motivated the girls to do this, Miriam, speaking to the Glasgow Tab, said: “We wanted to truly test the theory and find out which is harder, a physics degree or rowing an ocean. All jokes aside though, it’s hard to narrow it down to just one reason. The conversation about taking on the challenge came up by chance and we decided to grab it with both hands. We’re going to have to battle seasickness, 30ft waves, isolation and much more and so we get asked a lot about why we’re doing it. And our answer is always ‘Why not?”. Yes it’s going to be hard, but we always knew that would be the case but it’s going to be one incredible adventure. With this challenge we also saw an incredible opportunity to use this to raise some funds for our incredible charities.

We have chosen to fundraise for Wellbeing of Women and Mind. We have both had friends and family affected by mental health, and are inspired by Mind’s mission to bring people together through social initiatives and sport. Nobody should go it alone, be that a difficult time in your life or rowing an ocean. Wellbeing of Women are dedicated to improving the health of women and babies through pioneering medical research. Included in their research gynaecological cancers like ovarian cancer, to which we have lost loved ones. Women’s health is typically underfunded, and through our campaign we hope to raise awareness of this problem and just how crucial research in this area is.”

For more information, check @seastheday2022 on Instagram and Seastheday2022

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