Listers sales and marketing director Sam Weber has been accepted to take part in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, where he and three other crew members will row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, raising money for charity in the process.
Up to 30 boats will race from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean in December 2024, in a competition that is expected to last about six weeks.
“It’s billed at the toughest rowing race in the world,” Sam said. “In fact, more people have climbed Everest than have rowed the Atlantic.”
Sam’s team, Team Seasoar, is raising money for Lymes Disease UK and the Bay Area Lyme Foundation in California. Team member John Watkins chose the charities in recognition of his daughter who caught the disease after being bitten by a tick four years ago and has suffered from the condition since. Aged just 23, she suffers from severe fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, insomnia, tinnitus, fevers, eye problems, kidney problems, heart palpitations, hypertension, memory issues, headaches, daily nausea, and a compromised immune system, among many other symptoms. This is despite almost two years of failed treatment with antibiotics.
Left untreated, this disease can also cause early-onset arthritis, serious heart problems, facial paralysis, nerve damage, and inflammation in the brain and spinal cord.
This is far from the first extreme challenge for Sam. Among his most memorable trips are: climbing Kilimanjaro; learning survival techniques in the Amazon rainforest (which included catching and eating piranhas); and surviving Argentina’s Aconcagua (‘the mountain of death’). Aside from the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, Sam is also eyeing up a 300km trek across the Canadian wilderness.
