British Airways is looking for British talent

be able to fly home from Antigua after rowing the Atlantic as part of the WoodVale Challenge Rowing Race, one of the world's toughest endurance races. There are 30 international crews taking part but my crew is the only female pair in the race, only 49 women have ever rowed an ocean, with only 6 female pairs. Myself and Annie my crew mate are hoping to beat the existing British women's pair record of 75 days for the crossing, when we get to Antigua we hope to become British record holders! We have been sponsorship raising for months now and have covered our race entry, the lease of the boat, all our kit and our flights out to race start - but we haven't managed to cover the cost of flying home, so we're setting off next month not sure how we'll get home!

Annie and I have been thinking about entering the race for several years now, but back in March we decided this was our year. Most crews take 2 to 3 years to get their campaign together - we've had just 9 months, and trying to raise sponsorship funds in a recession has proved extremely difficult. We have had to fight so hard just to get to the start, never giving up despite receiving rejection after rejection, believing in our dream and our ability to achieve it has kept us going. We originally signed up to do the race with 2 boys, we advertised to find them, interviewed and chose them and we all began training and sponsorship raising as a crew. However when we had to sign the lease for the boat both boys backed out, saying they didn't think we would raise the finances and didn't want to get into debt. Us girls were completely left in the lurch! However we decided to carry on as a pair - we are determined to race, this was a huge set back but it wasn't going to stop us! It did mean that an already enormous workload was now even bigger but we've just had to work harder, and we've done it - we've made it to race start!

However that's only half the story! We have 3,000 miles to row from the Canaries to Antigua, living on a 25 ft boat in extremely basic conditions. One of us will be rowing at all times, 2 hours, on 2 hours off, continuously, we won't even stop for Christmas! Some of the hardships and potential hazards we face are: 30 ft waves, capsizing, sunstroke, sleep deprivation, blisters and salt sores in some horrendous places, oil tankers, sharks. These are some of the reasons why more people have gone into space than have rowed an ocean! We will face extreme physical and mental challenges but our biggest challenge will be keeping ourselves motivated for over 2 months, keeping going through the pain and tiredness. We truly hope we can do it - we want that British record! We're also hoping our challenge will raise a huge amount of money for Macmillan.