A family are rowing from the source of the Thames to Margate without leaving home – and they’ve been amazed by the amount of money raised.

The Isted family have smashed their initial £1,000 target and are well on the way to £3,000 with their 400k rowing machine challenge set to be finished on Monday.

Dad Martin, mum Lorna, their 19-year-old rowing enthusiast daughter Airlie and 16-year-old son Harley are using an Ordnance Survey app to plot their course but the only thing they’ve got to visualise on is the garden fence outside their conservatory.

They are raising money for The Alexandra Sales Trust, a charity who support children and young people aged one to 24 who have been diagnosed with cancer, raising ‘Smile Money’, such as gifts or experiences that they will treasure.

The family were inspired by captain Tom Moore, who has raised close to £30m, and wanted to do something themselves to focus on during the current lockdown.

Airlie, who turns 20 next month, has been a member of Maidstone Invicta Rowing Club for a year and the machine she received at Christmas has been put to good use.

Each of the family members are aiming to row 100k each, in stints.

“We’ve got quite a few blisters,” said Martin. “It’s an idea that came about during a sleepless night. The Thames wasn’t long enough so we added a bit extra and decided to take it to Margate instead.”

By Tuesday afternoon they had reached Fulham, rowing there from the source of the Thames located in Gloucestershire. Stops included the world famous Olympic Rowing venue Dorney Lake, for a sprint section, before winding their way through London to eventually finish on the Kent coast.

All have varying levels of stamina and strength and the message on their justgiving site says: “Any donation, even the price of a cup of coffee, would be gratefully received, and will help to motivate Harley to get out of bed in the morning and row.”

The donations have since exceeded expectations.

“We have been blown away by it,” said Martin. “It is an incentive and the more money we raise the more it has helped drive us on.

“The main charity has raised about £195k and it would be great to help push it towards £200k.

“The charity do anything to try and make the children happy and we know of a lad in hospital that can’t see his family very often because of Covid-19 and they have purchased a laptop for him so they can keep in touch.

“We realised the stark reality, that while much money was being raised for our amazing front line staff during Covid-19, fundraising had completely ground to a halt for small charities, with their fundraising events cancelled and shops closed for the foreseeable future.

“We chose to support The Alexandra Sales Trust, who are continuing to give ‘Smile Money’ to children and young people living with cancer. The reality is that cancer doesn’t stop for covid-19.

“We know that people’s generosity will really make a difference, as the Trust have told us many heart tugging stories that are going on right now.”

Click here for the link to the fundraising page

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