Portland's paddling pensioners complete 400 mile charity kayak

Endurance athletes Tim Ellis, 66, and Eddie Ette, 65, ended up kayaking 423 miles from Land's End to Margate in just 13 days in order to raise money for the children’s hospice charity based in Dorset.

The challenge itself had to be split into two chunks, owing to a pre-arranged family holiday, but Tim and Eddie picked up the baton and completed the final two legs earlier this month.

In total the pair spent 95 hours paddling through all sorts of conditions and Tim said it would, probably, be their last “mammoth challenge”.

He said: “Well the idea started out last year as ‘a leisurely paddle down the South Coast’ but over the years we’ve done a fair few big fundraisers and raised money for British Heart Foundations, Parkinson’s, a couple of cancer organisations so we thought why not tie it into a charity again.

"We picked Julia’s House because we’ve both lost family members to cancer and I always remember close to my mum dying, it was close to one of our previous events, she said ‘do it for the kids’ so that’s why we picked Julia’s House and got training for about six months.”

Over the 13 days of the challenge - averaging 32.5 miles / just over 7 hours of paddling each day - there were a number of occasions in which Tim and Eddie found themselves “at the hands of the weather gods” but Tim said nothing matched the feeling of completing the challenge.

He said: “With all these ultra-distance events it is nice to look back on what you’ve done and go ‘yeah that wasn’t easy’ but that’s what makes it so magnificent. Getting to go round the white cliffs of Dover and riding with the waves, when the conditions are perfect, that’s what makes up for the rough patches. And, of course, we know we’re lucky: most people can’t do that when they are 65 so we appreciate we’re in a lucky position and able to raise funds for a fantastic charity at the same time.”

To find out more or to donate visit: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tim-ellis22