21 minute read
ROWING FOR VICTORY
LEH ALUMNAE ROW FOR GLORY
In a truly inspirational display of sheer hard work and determination two LEH alumnae and their teammate, who has incurable cancer, have shattered the world record for rowing across the Atlantic. Abby Johnston, Class of 2007, who also works at LEH and was promoted to Head of Rowing just before she set out at the end of last year, teamed up with fellow alumna Charlotte Irving, Class of 2008, and friend Kat Cordiner, to take part in the world’s toughest row, the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.
The trio, who together make up Team ExtraOARdinary, completed the 3,000-mile crossing on Sunday 23 January in just 42 days, seven hours and 17 minutes, knocking an astonishing seven days off the female trio world record.
As they stepped onto land for the first time in six weeks, they said they felt “wobbly, overwhelmed and happy”. Race organisers said they had shown the impossible was possible. The record-breaking bid hit the headlines around the world and the trio were featured heavily on news bulletins and across international press, ranging from
the Today programme on Radio 4 to Sky News, who came down to the school to film.
Kat Cordiner has secondary cervical cancer and is thought to be the first person to tackle this challenge as a cancer patient. The team is raising money for Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.
She 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 - I want to do things that are challenging and fun.”
Grinning from ear to ear to have completed the challenge in such record-breaking time, Abby said: “We can’t quite believe it! But it was hard work, we’re not going to lie. We’re all exhausted but it was worth it.”
She added: “No-one can appreciate dry land like we can right now. You push yourself to the limits and you realise what you are made of. I’m not saying I’ll do it again, but this feels pretty good.”
Charlotte said: “You’ve got to celebrate the good times to get you through the bad. We had such fun out there and we have come back still fast friends, which was a huge objective for us. It wasn’t just about breaking the record but about enjoying the whole experience and we really did.”
Students at LEH School are bursting with pride that their Rowing Coach has smashed a world record and become one of the fastest females ever to row across the Atlantic Ocean. Upper Sixth students in the LEH Rowing Squad followed Abby and Charlotte’s progress across the ocean.
Rowing captain Maddy said: “It was great to see Abby going from just talking about the challenge to seeing her actually break the world record and by a week too. It’s definitely really inspiring.”
Vice-captain Danielle said: “We saw her do all that training and put in the work, so it’s really exciting as a rowing team to see the benefits and how it’s all paid off.”
Fellow vice-captain Emily agreed: “Seeing her training with us and being part of her preparation made us feel really involved. Sometimes you question whether you can do it but seeing her determination to complete this record has made us that much more determined too.”
Katherine said: “You always hear about people doing these challenges and breaking these world records, but you never actually know the person that does it. To actually know Abby and to know that it’s possible – that’s really amazing.”
Charlotte added: “Abby was doing the same kind of training as us, and to know that she then went on to row across the Atlantic is just so inspiring. It makes us want to train that much harder too.”
Head Mistress Heather Hanbury said: “We are all in awe of Abby, Charlotte and Kat and send them huge congratulations. They are the true embodiment of our school motto – Hope Favours the Bold. Their world-breaking achievement is truly inspirational for our pupils, and we are looking forward to welcoming them back to school. We will be inviting them to give a special assembly so they can tell students all about their adventures.”
Who are team ExtraOARdinary?
Abby and Charlotte met as pupils at LEH when they rowed together for the school. They were part of the crew that became National Champions in 2007. By now firm friends, they both attended Newcastle University where they won various national titles and qualified for Henley Royal Regatta.
They have both taken part in epic adventures before. In 2016 Charlotte walked the entire length of America on the Pacific Crest Trail. The 2,600-mile trek across deserts and mountain ranges took almost five months to complete. In 2018 Abby took part in the Clipper Round the World Race, sailing from Australia up to China and then across the North Pacific.
Abby is now Head of Rowing at LEH and Charlotte works as Marketing Manager for Mercer, a health and benefits brokerage and consultancy.
Kat is Wholesale Head of Business Regulatory Risk and Strategic Change at HSBC. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2019 and had a radical hysterectomy. The cancer returned in May 2020 as secondary cervical cancer. To begin with she was worried that it would scupper the crew’s chances of taking part in the Atlantic row. But determined not to let the others down, she continued training despite the exhausting intensive cancer treatment, including heart surgery. Just before setting out, her doctors confirmed she is currently in remission.
THE CROSSING IN NUMBERS
42 days 7 hours 17 minutes THE NEW WORLD RECORD
EXTRACTS FROM TEAM EXTRAOARDINARY’S JOURNAL
29 NOVEMBER 2021
We’re flying out to Tenerife. We can’t quite believe we’re finally here! We’ve spotted at least another two crews on our flight, some we recognise and some new faces. The excitement is palpable. The adventure starts.
4 DECEMBER 2021
Pre-race inspection day. A bit nerve-wracking as it’s a pass or fail situation, but everything was checked and tested, and we passed with flying colours. We’re ready to race. Our daily chocolate bars have melted, but Dolly’s every nook and cranny is stuffed full of our packages, ready to hit the water.
7days – The number of days they beat the previous record by
2,794 – The miles they actually rowed
18 – The hours each crew mate spent rowing every day
10 – The number of litres of water each rower drank per day
5,000 – The number of calories they had to consume every day 12kg – Weight an average rower loses on an Atlantic crossing
700,000
– The number of strokes each team member made to cross the ocean
30c – The daytime temperature the women faced while rowing
20ft – The height of some of the waves in the Atlantic
11 DECEMBER 2021
One day to go and our start time has been confirmed. After almost two years of hard work, fundraising, preparation and excitement, we’re now ready to go. Look out Antigua! Wishing the other amazing crews all the luck in the world!
12 DECEMBER 2021
Today’s the day! The atmosphere is amazing and we’re so grateful for everyone’s support. As we finally row out there’s such a sense of relief. Here we go! Rowing away from family and friends and knowing you aren’t going to see them or step foot on land for six weeks is a weird feeling and very emotional. The departures are staggered every 15 minutes, so for the first day we can see the others and at night we can see the lights of 20 boats around us – it makes us feel less alone out here!
14 DECEMBER 2021
Within hours of setting out Kat and Charlotte ‘never-getsseasick’ Irving are heads in the bucket, enjoying their freeze-dried meals for the second time round. We can laugh now about the shifts we were on together, just passing the
bucket back and forth. But we push on through. We have to! The two hours on and one hour off routine is brutal. We’re really feeling it. Already our bodies ache EVERYWHERE, with our hands, bums, backs and knees taking the biggest hits. But to be honest, there’s nowhere we’re not feeling it. We’re starting to settle into the routine, but a bit more sleep would be much appreciated.
16 DECEMBER 2021
We are utterly exhausted. Although we’ve done some really tough rows in our time this is a whole new level. It’s relentless, for 18 hours a day. We’re so sleep deprived we’re starting to hallucinate. Last night Abby thought the moon was a great big cruise ship which was going to crash into us…
18 DECEMBER 2021
The weather has been pretty fab, with some great looking clouds – and the stars at night are just incredible and unforgettable. We’ve seen so many shooting stars! Yesterday the wind was non-existent, and the Atlantic was like glass. It made us feel like we were floating, and the silence on our night shifts was eerie. But the sunsets are like nothing else we’ve ever seen.
19 DECEMBER 2021
We’ve found our rhythm now, but the one hour off still passes in a flash. There’s just time to make up some food with the hot water in the thermos, eat it, try and stretch out aching muscles and wash a pair of pants for the next day and it’s almost time to get back on the oars again.
20 DECEMBER 2021
When every minute, hour and day involves non-stop rowing, you’ve got to get creative to break up the monotony. Which is why we’re celebrating fun Fridays by wearing Hawaiian shirts to add a splash of colour to Dolly’s decks.
23 DECEMBER 2021
Last night was one of the most physically demanding so far. We rowed into a strong headwind for about eight hours just trying to keep the boat moving. We only managed about one knot, it was backbreaking and dispiriting. But the Atlantic has a way of knowing when you need a break. This morning we saw an amazing display from a pod of around 20 dolphins. They were less than a metre away from our oars for about two hours. They were leaping around then swimming under the boat and off the bow. It really lifted our spirits. How lucky are we to be here right now?
25 DECEMBER 2021
Merry Christmas from Team ExtraOARdinary! For the first time in the whole row, we took 10 minutes off the oars to celebrate together!
26 DECEMBER 2021
Lessons learned so far:1. Rowing an ocean is brutal. Amazing? Yes. Life-changing? Definitely. Hardest thing we’ve ever done? Absolutely. 2. Things are scarier at night. Flying fish, waves and birds. 3. If something goes overboard you have less than two seconds to get it back before it’s lost to Davy Jones’ locker. RIP Kat’s hat and our beloved toilet bucket (luckily we’ve got a spare!) 4. Screaming at the top of your lungs into the Atlantic abyss feels good! 5. Everything is always damp even though it’s unbelievably hot.
1 JANUARY 2022
Happy New Year! How do you celebrate NYE aboard a 23-foot rowing boat? You don your Hawaiian shirt, pop on some (biodegradable) glitter, throw some shapes (at watch changeover) and you pop the bubbly on (Atlantic) ice.
4 JANUARY 2022
We’ve all been suffering from a progression of blisters/ calluses over the past couple of weeks. One of Abby’s has become infected and needed to be gouged out with a scalpel and treated with antibac and some antibiotics. On the upside, we’re over halfway there and celebrated last night with a quick song break. Living on sleep deprivation and adrenaline at this stage. Sun is back to beating down again today, but what a milestone!
7 JANUARY 2022
Day 26 aboard Dolly Parton and it’s a good one – it’s Kat’s birthday. We celebrated with presents, a small glass of fizz and glow sticks! We also had a visit from the Atlantic Campaigns support yacht Suntiki and they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ over the VHF radio. It’s our first sight of another human since we set out in early December! This time last year Kat was in the middle of six weeks of gruelling radiotherapy. What a difference a year makes! It’s really spurring us on.
10 JANUARY 2002
We’re locked in a fierce competition with the Dutch crew and other female trio, Row for Impact. We are both so determined to break the world record. At one point they were 36 miles in front, but we love a challenge. With the weather in our favour, we managed to cover 88 miles in one day – more than any other crew. The boat was surfing the waves, the sun behind the clouds, and it was such a sweet relief skimming across the water. We clawed our way back to 46 miles ahead – we are exhausted but jubilant.
11 JANUARY 2022
A big day for us as we hit the 1000 nautical mile to go mark! Every morning our weather router, Dawn Wood, sends us the heading to steer by to take advantage of the conditions that day. If the weather stays good, it’s looking more and more likely that we could break the world record. How amazing would that be?
14 JANUARY 2022
A really tough morning. We’re still exhausted and we saw from the update today that Row for Impact have hit an amazing current, and have reduced our lead to just a mile. We’ve somehow got to dig deeper. We can’t let the record slip away. Time to get rid of anything we don’t need to keep the boat as light as it can be.
15 JANUARY 2022
Day 35 and about one week still to go. Getting really fed up with the freeze-dried meals, although we all have our favourites including salmon and broccoli pasta and pork loin in green pepper sauce! What really keeps us going is our snack packs – chocolate, fizzy sweets, cereal bars and crisps. The crisps are the best!
16 JANUARY 2022
Yesterday we saw a massive pod of minke whales. There must have been about 50-100 – it took them about 45 minutes to swim past - they just kept on coming. One swam alongside the boat for a few minutes just half a metre away from the oars. There was absolutely no doubt it was looking at us, thinking ‘who are you and what are you doing’. They were playing on the waves, coming through the water and flashing their white tummies. It was absolutely incredible – a real boost. They seem to be our good luck charms - minkes bring good winds so we are hopeful the weather is about to change.
19 JANUARY 2022
So close we can almost smell the piña coladas! 2499 nautical miles rowed and just 294 to go. Irving has realised that this is what she really lives for – carrying out adventures in the midst of nature. Abby and Kat are both blown away that it’s possible we’re at this point. At the beginning it felt so hard we didn’t think we could take another stroke, but somehow, we just kept going and now we’re almost in touching distance. How amazing is the human body? How adaptable! If we can do it, anyone can.
20 JANUARY 2022
It was pretty scary last night – our first, and thankfully only, knock-down. We had about 20 knots of wind and some incredibly big waves – about two storeys high. Abby was on deck by herself, and the moon wasn’t yet up so she could hear a massive wave getting closer and closer, but not see it. Then suddenly it crashed over the boat and knocked her off the seat, tipping Dolly over at 90 degrees. It was a hairy moment, with the boat half capsized, Abby up to her armpit in water and the boat just hanging there. But Dolly saw us right, righting herself up. The others slept through the whole thing - one of the benefits of sleep deprivation! At shift change Abby had just enough time to tell Charlotte it was the worst shift of her entire row, before another wave crashed over the deck, soaking Abby and sending her swiftly into the cabin - leaving Charlotte to wonder what she meant for the rest of her shift!
21 JANUARY 2022
Just over 150 nautical miles to go and we’re having to dig deeper than ever to keep the speed up among the big waves. The world record and a win seem to be in the bag, but with ocean rowing you never can tell - so much can change in a matter of hours and we are determined to keep hold of it.
22 JANUARY 2022
We thought we’d see land about 100 miles out, but our very first glimpse was a halo of light on the horizon last night. Finally, today, with about 25 miles to go we can actually see it for the first time in six weeks. Land ahoy! Now every time when we look over our shoulder it’s getting closer. It’s so exciting.
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
The Alumnae Advisory Group sponsored team ExtraOARdinary to take part in the race and the LEH logo was proudly displayed on the hull of Dolly Parton. Many alumnae followed their progress on social media and posted messages of support as well as donating.
23 JANUARY 2022
Arriving at the finishing line was so surreal – just the weirdest feeling. Abby was steering us round the headland while Charlotte and Kat rowed, when the Atlantic Challenge boat came out to meet us. It was so emotional to finally be at this point. You can see your family and friends on shore after longing to see them for 42 days and finally – there they are! Holding those flares, we all just felt sheer elation. We’d done it!
Pulling up at the dock was crazy. There were so many people there and our first steps on land were hilarious. We just couldn’t walk. You’re expecting the ground to be moving up and down like the water. It’s like being drunk! Standing on the podium was amazing, so exhilarating, we couldn’t stop grinning. To say we were weary is an epic understatement, but we still went out partying - we can always find the energy for a celebration. We were running on adrenalin. All our friends and family were there, and we didn’t want to miss out!
25 JANUARY 2022
It’s all rather surreal being back on land – all the press interest and the messages of congratulations. We’ve been thinking about getting to this point for two years now, and finally we’re here and it’s done. We broke the world record, and it feels unbelievable. We’re incredibly proud of each other. Going back to our normal lives will be so weird. But it all went to plan, and we are so excited to have done it. The exhaustion is beginning to hit - we’ve been racking up a debt with our bodies and now it’s payback time. It’s time to rest and recover before we think about what’s next!
The team has set themselves an ambitious target of raising £100,000 for their three cancer charities - Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Donations are still welcome, so please keep them coming.
To donate please head to the We Are ExtraOARdinary website: www.weareextraoardinary.com/donate or to their GoFundMe page: www.gofundme.com
Melanie Ivarsson awarded OBE in New Year Honours List
Many congratulations to Melanie Ivarsson, Class of 1990, who received an OBE in the New Year Honours List 2022 for services to public health during COVID-19.
Melanie, who is based in the US, is Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Moderna and led clinical trials to develop one of the world’s first COVID-19 vaccines.
She said: “I am incredibly honoured to have received this OBE. It has been a true joy and privilege to work with the incredible team at Moderna to develop our COVID-19 vaccine and deliver on the promise of mRNA technology. I am so very proud of what we have achieved together.
“I have been fortunate to have had really marvellous managers, mentors and colleagues throughout my career. You have guided and developed me on this journey, and I am so grateful to all of you. Last but by no means least, none of this would have been possible without the love and support of my amazing family and friends. Thank you for being with me every step of the way.”
The company is currently working on an Omicron-specific booster shot, which will be ready by late 2022. Its scientists are also exploring ways of using the mRNA technology that helped COVID-19 vaccines succeed to develop a universal flu vaccine with higher efficacy rates than those currently available.
Melanie is due to return to LEH in March to give the Goswell lecture to current pupils.
Poppy Gilbert stars in Netflix Hit Thriller
Talented actress Poppy Gilbert, Class of 2015, is one of the stars of Stay Close, the smash-hit Harlan Coben drama, released on Netflix at the start of the year.
Just a few weeks after being released it charted as the most watched show on Netflix, featuring in the top 10 in 71 countries and boasting 176.2 million hours viewed to date. The eight-part drama features a star-studded cast including Cush Jumbo, James Nesbitt, Richard Armitage and Eddie Izzard. It follows a woman desperately trying to protect her treasured family life from dark secrets coming back to haunt her.
Poppy Gilbert plays Barbie, who is described as the “brains of the business”. She is ruthless and willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve her goals.
She has previously appeared in Call The Midwife,The Pale Horse and Midsomer Murders. This month, she’s back on BBC ONE in the title role of the creepy new psychological drama Chloe.
Gabriela Cohen on Portrait Artist of the Year
Talented up and coming artist Gabriela Cohen, Class of 2016, won a place in the semi-finals of Sky Art’s Portrait Artist of the Year 2021 in November.
The multidisciplinary artist was initially selected for the competition, which is presented by Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell, after submitting a striking self portrait painted in oil on canvas (above).
Her artistic process is a unique combination of polaroid photography, digital art and oil painting. Gabriela says: “I think polaroids bring a soft romanticism to an image, combined with digital editing to manipulate the colours of my reference image. The paintings often come out as if they are from a parallel world. It gives them a dreamy quality which allows me to capture the sitter’s personality while also presenting a magical, fairytale version of them.” In her first round, Gabriela painted space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock, who presents The Sky at Night on BBC FOUR (below, left). The judges loved it. Kathleen Soriano said: “We have here an artist who uses technology in a truly creative way.” While Tai Shan Schierenberg and Kate Bryan praised Gabriela’s distinctive painting style and beautiful colour palette, describing it as “inventive and playful and a tantalising promise of what’s coming next.”
In the semi-finals Gabriela painted drummer Nick Mason. She says: “I really love Pink Floyd so this was amazing! It was quite moving when we had to show him our paintings, you could tell it touched him and it was an honour to show him my artwork. I put so much pressure on myself to make the best ever painting and I’m proud I gave it my all and pushed myself. Taking part in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2021 was such a wonderful opportunity. It was an experience I’ll treasure forever.”
After leaving LEH, Gabriela did a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at the Arts University Bournemouth, and went on to achieve first class honours for her BA in Fine Art there in 2020. She is currently working as a freelance digital content creator/ graphic designer, with a year-long residency at spudWORKs, an artist community based in the New Forest.
