A TEAM of charity rowers are to tackle a gruelling 56-mile sea voyage to raise money for good causes.

Jamie Mills will depart Douglas in the Isle of Man tomorrow (Thursday) and row to Llandudno to raise money for his two year old son, Edward John, who has been diagnosed with cleft lip and palate.

While the main aim for Mr Mills is to raise money for the Cleft Association, this row has double meaning for the 46-year old Conwy Valley resident with 2017 marking 25 years since his brothers, Christian and Justin, drowned in a boating accident off Llandudno.

He will be accompanied on the row by Daniel James, Gerwyn Lewis, Dryden Glyndwr Jones and Nathan Midgely who have their own reasons for taking part.

Mr Lewis is taking part in memory of the Mills’ brothers who perished along with three others on that tragic day on 1992, while Mr James will complete the challenge in memory of his dad who suffered from tinnitus before taking his own life.

He will be raising money for the British Tinnitus Association.

The crew and their row have already raised around £18,000 which Mr Mills said was fantastic.

He said: “The support from local businesses and people has been immense, just amazing.”

The crew of five have had very little rowing experience heading into the fundraiser and only hit the water to practice for the first time in April.

Mr Mills said a big thank you to the Conwy Rowing Club who have trained him and the crew and for providing them with the boat.

He added, before the row last week: “Without them this wouldn’t have been possible.”

The idea came to Mr Mills around a year ago and once he decided what he was doing it for he knew he needed something big to raise the funds.

He added: “The idea came to me about this time last year, my youngest son (pictured right) has been diagnosed with a cleft lip and palate so I wanted to do something for the Cleft Association.

“I’m not a half hearted guy so I said if I was going to do something for the charity it had to be something out of the ordinary. I saw a guy on the news dragging an anvil up Goatfell, Arran, and thought I need to do something like that is going to raise some big numbers.”

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