THE Winsford Community pulled together at the weekend to help complete a 24-hour rowing challenge on the same day that Northwich’s Matt Langridge won Olympic rowing gold.

Carol Roberts and Andy White got together a group of friends for a 24-hour rowing challenge in aid of four charities - Ataxia UK, St Luke's Hospice, Scoliosis UK, and The Christies.

The challenge, held at The Old Star pub, would see them travel the equivalent of the circumference of the UK, but when members of the 40-strong team started to drop out in the weeks leading up to the big day, Carol was overwhelmed by the kindness of the Winsford community.

Carol said: “It went amazingly well, I couldn’t have asked for a better turnout.

“I wanted to do it with 40 people and we got them all but then one by one people kept dropping out for various reasons like injuries. In the end we were left with 19 people so I put an appeal out for anyone to come and help out with a bit of rowing, and the response was amazing.

“We kept count of all the people who came and helped out and we counted 115 people. There were people who had just gone out for a drink and ended up going home and changing into their gym clothes and coming back to row.

“It was a real community effort, we had all kinds of people coming to help out, young and old. The youngest rower was four years old and did 2km and our oldest rower was 72 and she did 5km.

“The team of 19 who had been training for the challenge did the brunt of the rowing - we all did at least 100km each, but there is no way we could have done it without the help from the community. I did 128km and I would have had to double that which just wouldn’t have been possible.”

The date was set months ago for the event, but it worked out that Matt Langridge from Northwich won an Olympic gold medal in rowing on the same day.

Carol added: “It was so inspiring. We had the big screen on and we were watching all the events and it definitely made people start rowing faster.”

The total amount raised has not been counted yet with sponsorships still to be taken in, but almost £1,000 was raised in the pub over the 24 hours.

Winsford deputy mayor, Cllr Mike Kennedy, officially started the challenge and was blown away by the ‘community endeavour’.

Cllr Kennedy said: “I think it was the most fantastic fundraising event I’ve seen for many years.

“The dedication of the people taking part and taking turns throughout the night was absolutely fantastic and they did a phenomenal job.”