Tom Waddington, 40, from Halifax, Yorkshire, will attempt to become the fastest man in history to row the North Atlantic Ocean solo when he departs on June 29 – the current record for the crossing is 39 days. He will row about 2,000 miles from St.Johns in Newfoundland, Canada, to Penzance in Cornwall in a boat named “Be Hatty”, after his girlfriend Hatty Harrison, 24, who was killed by a van in the village of Oake, west of Taunton, while walking her dog in November 2020.
Tom, who runs a skiing school in Verbier, Switzerland, says his mission - named Mind Oar Matter - is to raise £50,000 for the charity Mind, which helped support him following Hatty’s death. Hatty Harrison, 24, from Oake, Taunton, died in a road accident in 2020. Hatty attended Kings College and Richard Huish College before moving to London, studying at Fashion Retail Academy, and getting a job as a merchandiser for Boden.
She was staying with her parents in Oake during the lockdown and walking her poodle when the tragedy occurred. Hatty was a keen skier and sportswoman, described as "vivacious and beautiful" by her family – parents David and Fay, sister Milly, and boyfriend Tom. Speaking about his motivations for taking on the challenge, Tom said: “In 2020 my girlfriend tragically passed away, she was an amazing person and I went through struggles with grief.
We went back into another covid lockdown and I was on my own a lot. “One of the best things I did was speaking to someone [thanks to Mind.