Dubai: They like to be known as ordinary girls raising awareness against child trafficking by doing something extraordinary. And come December, Dubai-based Katie Pattison-Hart will embark upon the biggest challenge of her life when she, along with five other girls, will attempt to row across the Atlantic to raise awareness and money to put a stop to the heinous practice.
Their effort will be part of the Row for Freedom campaign and one of Katie's teammates, Debbie Beadle, will be over in Dubai this weekend to do a 24-hour rowathon at the Mina Seyahi Rowing Club.
Born in Brunei, Katie, who is also a part-time model, has a gymnastics background and has tried her hand at extreme sports like Thai-boxing, bungee-jumping and high-board diving. But this will be at an altogether different level given that the girls are likely to be out on the ocean unassisted for about 45 days.
This will be the first time that an only-women crew have attempted something like this. There will be no room onboard for home comforts, no bathroom facilities, limited cooking opportunities and their diet will consist of high calorie expedition foods and snacks while they will drink desalinated water and take turns to sleep in a space smaller than a single bed (taking shifts of two hours on, two hours off).
And yet the 31-year-old Briton is excited about this ‘once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity. "This will definitely be the biggest thing that I have ever done," she told XPRESS.
Taxing
"Personally, I feel so privileged to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. This will definitely be the biggest challenge I have ever taken part in both mentally and physically. The sense of achievement as part of a team will be huge.
"Whilst at sea, we will probably suffer from sleep deprivation, aches, pains and blisters that we wouldn't have experienced before. Sea sickness and sleeping in confined spaces will also be a test coupled with potentially bad weather conditions."
The reference to the bad weather conditions was obviously related to the hurricanes which lash the Caribbeans in and around November. "We begin the row from Canary Islands to Barbados (a distance of 3,000 miles) on December 4, hoping that the hurricane season will be over by then. We do have communication with the organisers using GPS and satellites and hope everything goes off well," she said.
Through this effort, Katie and her teammates expect to raise around Dh6 million. They have already received assistance from Dubai Duty Free and Gems Education with more joining in. The social network site Facebook have donated a banner as well.
Those interested can contribute to the cause by logging on to www.rowforfreedom.com
