SIX dedicated fundraisers are rowing a gruelling 22 miles along the Thames today in aid of St Elizabeth Hospice in Ipswich.Karla Vass, Adria Pittock, Alison Ward and Janette Stebbings from Holbrook and Patty Shone and Joy Stodart from Harkstead have been training hard in preparation for the Great River Race, which is organised by the Company of Watermen and Lightermen.

SIX dedicated fundraisers are rowing a gruelling 22 miles along the Thames today in aid of

St Elizabeth Hospice in Ipswich.

Karla Vass, Adria Pittock, Alison Ward and Janette Stebbings from Holbrook and Patty Shone and Joy Stodart from Harkstead have been training hard in preparation for the Great River Race, which is organised by the Company of Watermen and Lightermen.

The race starts at Ham in Surrey, and finishes opposite the Cutty Sark, Greenwich at Garden Islands, Docklands.

Competitors are rowing traditional or traditional style boats, and the team - called the Gallister Girls after Gallister Creek in the River Stour - are to race in a 390 kilogram Felixstowe Clayton skiff lent by Suffolk Yacht Harbour.

They have been practising at Holbrook Creek, where harbour master Peter Page helped with the fundraising, and made a tiller and a rudder so that his own dinghy could be borrowed for the first months of training.

The Gallister Girls, who have had to juggle jobs and family duties to find time to row two or three times a week, have already raised £2 500 for the hospice.

Donations payable to St Elizabeth Hospice can be sent to Patty Shone, at The Old Rectory, Harkstead, Ipswich or telephone 01473 787586.

Weblink

www.greatriverrace.co.uk