Land's End rowers 'won't stop' despite bad weather

The team changed course to Milford Haven in Wales due to bad weather

A rowing team attempting a 900-mile (1,448km) journey from Land's End to John O'Groats to raise £57m for motor neurone disease (MND) research, say bad weather which forced them to change their route will not defeat them.

The four-strong team from Row 4 MND set off from Newlyn but were hampered by challenging weather 20 miles (32.1km) off the coast of Ireland.

Crew member, Matt Parker, said the wind "was against us" and they had taken the decision on Sunday to change course to Milford Haven, off the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales.

He said they changed plans as "we're here to do something special" and were inspired by people with MND whose "big thing is doing everything with a smile on your face".

Mr Parker said the message from the MND community had been "don't stop what you're doing".

The crew's weather router and safety team came up with a couple of options to continue up the west coast "neither of which were low tariff or low risk", he added.

They could have rowed another 50 miles (80.4km) back to Ireland or waited another week for the weather to calm down.

"It was going to be another tough row and if we didn't make it, it was going to be very difficult to find a way of exiting. We wanted to carry on," Mr Parker said.

The rowers encountered challenging weather off the coast of Ireland

Mr Parker swam ashore to the Welsh coast and travelled by taxi, train and car back home to pick up a trailer so the boat could be brought back to Newlyn.

The crew plan to now turn left and go anti-clockwise around the south coast of England, beginning at 22:00 BST on Tuesday, instead of heading up the west coast.

They expect to reach The Lizard at 05:00 BST on Wednesday and aim to be at the south-east corner of England to row up the east coast late Friday or Saturday morning.

He said the experienced team had more than 270 days of ocean experience between them and were resilient.

"Twenty four hours ago we thought we weren't going anywhere. If that means changing plans and asking people to help us, we're not shy of doing that," said Mr Parker.

He added the team had been motivated by messages from MND charities who told them: "The amount of money that you're trying to raise has the potential to fundamentally change what's going on."