Round-island paddle anything but child’s play

He ended up rowing more than 27 miles in 12 hours and has raised nearly £5,000 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation.

He set off shortly from Portelet shortly before 5am on bank holiday Monday in perfect conditions.

His first challenge was the south coast.

‘It was a long slog, but I knew it would be because of the wind direction,’ he said.

‘If I managed to get to St Martin’s Point in about four hours, I knew I would make it.’

He got there in just over the four hours and after finding the east coast easier, he felt that he had cracked the toughest part of the row.

But he had reckoned without Lihou Island.

‘That was brutal. I felt I’d done the hard work by then, but when I got to Perelle I was having quite a lot of pain in my arms.’

The tide at the Lihou causeway was too low to row across. Mr Veron could have picked up the dinghy and walked a few metres, but instead he rowed.

He was doing the challenge in memory of his baby son Oliver, who died in 2016.

He had a photo of Oliver taped to the dinghy, which kept him going.

‘When I finished I was very tired but I think I was on a bit of a high.

‘I was quite emotional having done it. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to.

‘Probably about an hour later I felt I was still going up and down and I went to bed feeling a bit dizzy.’

A number of people helped support Mr Veron during the row, including his wife Jenna on land and dad Chris, who followed him in a support boat.

‘The list of people to thank is huge and I’m so grateful to so many people who have supported this team effort,’ he said.

He paid particular tribute to Iain Lowe, who paddled a kayak alongside him throughout.

There was an added note of poignancy in that it would have been Mr Veron’s mother’s birthday on the same day as the row.

She died in 2009 but he said doing the row on that day made it even more special.

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