A former Kent marine and his team had to be rescued while attempting to cross the Atlantic in a fundraising challenge.

Andy Merry, 58, from Deal, and three other injured ex-servicemen encountered technical difficulties on the first leg of their journey.

The ‘Row4Ukraine’ team was off the coast of Gran Canaria when the steering mechanism on their boat broke.

They found themselves stranded and had to be winched to safety by the coastguard.

After returning to shore, the captain of the effort Lee Spencer revealed he had to cancel the trip as the vessel was no longer seaworthy.

Mr Merry, who is due to return home on Tuesday, told KentOnline: “It was pretty crushing.

“We were putting an awful lot of ourselves into this, and we had the realisation that we're going to have to sort of pull the plug and stop.

“We had been preparing for over a year and Lee put 18 months of his life into it so there's a lot of investment in ourselves.

“The Ukrainian guys are with us and up a lot to come over and take part in it, so that was the disappointment.”

In a Facebook video on Thursday, Mr Spencer said: “At about 1pm yesterday I made the decision that we would have to abandon ship.

“The safety of the crew came first. We could not just drift out into the middle of the Atlantic on what was essentially a raft.

“We were airlifted off the boat at approximately 2.40pm. The boat's still out there.

“We're trying everything we can do to recover her but even if we do recover her, it wasn't just the steering systems that were a problem.

“There were other issues as well. The deck started to disintegrate and I've made the decision that the boat isn't seaworthy.”

Ukrainian volunteer soldier Semen Lagun and Igor Olehovych, who lost his right leg below the knee in 2017 but returned to the frontline when the war with Russia escalated, were also on the row boat.

Mr Merry added: “Christmas is just around the corner, so we're going to get home, see our families and reassess.

“I’ve just had a grandson who I’ve never met.

“It's not beyond the realms of possibility that we maybe look at doing it all again next year, but I've got secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, so it may be that my body won't allow that to happen.”

Mr Spencer went on to thank everyone who supported the effort.

He says the team will now “sit down and assess what they can do”