Rob Smith is sailing round mainland Britain in an effort
to raise £20,000 for Leukaemia Research this summer.
He was inspired to make the voyage after interviewing a lovely young
woman called Jessie Whitmore in 2005. Jessie had acute myeloid leukaemia -
but more importantly a real zest for life, and great hope for the future.
Sadly, that didn't prove to be enough to beat the disease, and she died
later that same year. During the months of her treatment she kept a diary
- the last entry, the night before she died, reads "I want to go home. I
want my mum." No one should have to go through the trauma that Jessie
endured, and that her family are still suffering. You can find out more
about the voyage online at
www.justgiving.com/sailroundbritain
Rob says "I grew up sailing cadet dinghies on the east coast, and I
love that sense of adventure you get from visiting a new place for the
first time from the sea. You get a completely different understanding of
the countryside when you see it from the water that you can never really
get from a car. So, it's always been an ambition of mine to sail round
Britain , and get a proper appreciation of our island. The fact that I can
fulfil a lifelong ambition at the same time as hopefully doing some real
good in raising funds for the LRF is fantastic."
Rob is sailing anticlockwise from Kent on the voyage in his Sadler 32,
Wild Rover, and hoping to complete the journey is just three weeks
