St Neots woman with incurable cancer plans to row across the Atlantic

Kat Cordiner was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year

A women with incurable cancer is planning to row across the Atlantic to raise money for charity.

Kat Cordiner, from St Neots, Cambridgeshire, and her teammates are preparing to row 3,000 miles (4,828km), starting in December.

They will be living on their 7.6m (25ft) boat and rowing continuously, with two hours on and two hours off for each rower.

Ms Cordiner, 40, said she wanted to do something "challenging and fun".

She will be joined by Charlotte Irving, 32, from London, and Abby Johnston, a 31-year-old professional rowing coach from Surrey.

The trio will be unsupported as they attempt to cross the world's second largest ocean on their boat, which they have named Dolly Parton.

Kat Cordiner (left) will be joined by Charlotte Irving (centre) and Abby Johnston (right)

Last year, during lockdown, Ms Cordiner was given her second diagnosis of cervical cancer and told it was incurable.

She is now in remission and only taking drugs to deal with the effects of an early menopause.

Ms Cordiner said: "The doctors have told me I don't have decades, I have years, so I really want to make the most of them.

"I don't want to muck around doing stuff that doesn't matter."

Her first cancer diagnosis came when she was having her eggs harvested in the hope of having a baby in the future.

Ms Cordiner, who has now had her ovaries removed, said she may use her frozen eggs in the future "should I meet someone who wants them", or she may donate them.

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The team fly to La Gomera in the Canary Islands on 29 November and start on 12 December, aiming to arrive in Antigua about 60 days later.

Money raised from the attempt will go to Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

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