Islander ‘can’t wait’ for 24-hour row for charity

The charity event will take place on Saturday into Sunday, with Mr De Jersey-Moore’s motivation for taking on this challenge coming from a friend, a new dad, being recently diagnosed with MS.

With Mr De Jersey-Moore’s first child on the way, he said he could only imagine how hard this must be for the family and so he decided to row for MS Guernsey.

‘It’ll be great to get started on Saturday,’ he said.

‘I’ve done a huge amount of training for it, I’m very much into ultra running, so I’ve been doing lots of running, as well as weights and rowing, obviously.

‘The aim is to build up my body, so I’m overcompensating in order to prevent injury.’

He hopes to raise £7,500 to fully fund for one year the exercise classes run by MS Guernsey at Beau Sejour.

Last year he rowed for 100km on a Concept2 rowing machine for MS Guernsey, and while he has tackled many ultra-distance events this is the first time he will attempt to row for 24 hours.

Since he will burn more than 16,000 calories during this challenge, he will be stopping for short breaks on a regular schedule to allow him to take on water and food.

These two-minute breaks also allow him to be monitored for excessive weight loss or gain that might impact his performance and health – especially important with the warm weather recently in the island.

A target of 275km or 171 miles – nearly the distance to London from St Peter Port – will require careful pacing as it is very easy to go out too fast and fall short of the intended target. It will in the later stages become more about psychological endurance than physical fitness.

‘I want to raise as much money as possible,’ added Mr De Jersey-Moore.

‘It’s been a difficult time for charities during Covid – it’ll be good to do this for them.

‘I have a lot of volunteers helping and a few offers of sponsorship – I can’t wait.’

n To donate, visit https://giving.gg/donate/Event/0/Donate-to-Guernsey-Charitable-Event.