Training and fundraising are both top of the priority list at the moment. Both Lin and Rachel are spending a good amount of time on rwoing seats each week, both on and off the water, toughening up (quite literally!) for their 24 hour indoor row over the Easter weekend.

Part of the preparations for this event include developing a food and drink plan (not just Easter eggs!), to recreate the routine they plan to follow on board during the race. It's also been interesting to monitor the physical changes as they spend more time rowing - aches and pains that come and go, blisters and hydration levels. by finding out now what's 'normal' and addressing any issues, it will help the team develop their planning and preparation.

New sponsors continue to join the team and Rachel spent a really enjoyable time recently with the students and teachers of Tarvin Primary School near Chester. Starting off with a talk about the challenge, the students then organised a bring-and-buy sale to raise enough money to buy an oar for the boat, successfully donating nearly £200. Some classes also developed some motivational phrases as part of their lessons, based on what they had seen in the presentation.

In addition, Northwest car supermarket Fords of Winsford became the latest silver sponsors, while Dowlis Corporate Solutions are supplying a range of merchandise, branded for the challenge, sot that the rowers can sell on some unique goodies and souvenirs to supporters.

the support from overseas is growing too, this month seeing sponsors added from Philadelphia, USA and the South of France. Although the title of 'furthest away supporters' still goes to Akemi and the Cottage Kids in Japan! It's great to see the donations build up from so far away and the rowers are truly grateful for all of this support. 

30 March brought an update meeting with the Breast Cancer Care team. These meetings are held every quarter to make sure everything is running smoothly. Subjects include reviews of the accounts and fundraising, the press campaign and new opportunities, forthcoming events and a catch up on progress.

Due to the way this campaign was set up, there is a great deal of committment from both the rowers and the team at Breast Cancer Care who work with them. It seems to be going well too, the meetings help the rowers to focus on all parts of the campaign and have also proven to be a great media for sharing ideas adn experience from both parties.

Finally, we hope you've all been able to take a look at the new website, which went live on 1 March. There's been some great feedback already and there were over 3,500 unique visitors to the site in the first month. We hope you like it!

This months photo - Lin and Rachel training on the River Dee in Chester, during filming for Granada Reports last year.

Question of the month - why do you have to get a special sea first aid certificate when you are both already qualified? 

This is the same question that Rachel and Lin asked their instructor when they did the course nearly a year ago. His answer was "You know the bit when you diall 999 and the nice paramedics come and take over? Well, that bit doesn't happen at sea!".

Of course this may seem obvious, but the reality is sobering. The main difference in the course is an element of remote medic training. What to do when help really is further away than a 999 call. When at sea, there is a doctor on call, located on one of the support boats, so help really is just a satellite phone call away. But a 'house-call' may be out of the question for some time, so all competitors must be competent in sea first aid - being able to control a situation until either it resolves itself, or help can be obtained.

You'll be pleased to hear that both Lin and Rachel passed with flying colours!

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