At the start of June, Class of 2012 former pupil, Craig Durnin, will be undertaking a mighty physical endurance challenge alongside 11 other rowers, including his wife Christina Clark, (Class of 2011). By taking part in the Rowing a Million Metres for Children with Cancer event, collectively the relay team hope to break the existing Guinness World Record of rowing one million metres non-stop on a Concept2 indoor rowing machine, a record which currently stands at 61 hours, 50 minutes and 41 seconds.

Speaking about his decision to get involved in this inspiring philanthropic initiative, Craig said: “While the event itself is undoubtedly exciting, the decision to take part is quite personal to me. As some of you may know, one of my best friends at the High School, Chris Smith (Class of 2012), was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, and he battled hard with it for years. During our final year at school, I organised an ultra-duathlon to raise money for specialist treatment for him in Germany, but sadly he passed away only a few days before. The event still went ahead and the money raised went towards establishing a charity in his name, Unite Against Cancer.

“I’ve not undertaken any fundraising since, finding Chris’ loss a bit difficult to get over. I’d have loved if the money raised from my previous fundraising challenge could have gone towards helping Chris directly, and internally I perceived it as a failure on my part.”

Having become aware of the Rowing a Million Metres for Children with Cancer challenge, Craig felt inspired to take part. Reflecting on how he first got involved, Craig said: “Gihan, the leader of this challenge, reached out to me when he heard about my rowing background (I dabbled whilst at university) and his story struck a chord with me. Sadly, his daughter was diagnosed with a very rare, advanced and complex pelvic tumour in 2022 when she was just one year old. She has since happily made a full recovery.

“Gihan’s aim is to raise £1,000 for every day his daughter received active treatment, which totalled 169 days. So he has set a target of raising £169,000 to support Momentum in Fitness Charity’s ‘PB Active’ project. Through this initiative, the charity delivers life-changing exercise therapy to children under the care of the Children’s Cancer & Haematology Unit at Southampton General Hospital, as well as those in the surrounding community.

“Ultimately, I have decided to get involved and tackle this challenge head-on to pursue a better outcome than the one I previously experienced. I’ve committed to rowing more than 100,000 metres myself, pushing through exhaustion and sleep deprivation all whilst trying to maintain a world-record pace. It will all be worth it to be able to raise money to support such a great cause.”

On behalf of the entire HSOG Community, we wish the best of luck to Craig and the rest of the team and we look forward to hearing the outcome of this epic endurance challenge later this summer.

You can find out more about the Rowing a Million Metres for Children with Cancer event by visiting their website here. If you’d like to support Craig, Gihan and the team’s fundraising challenge, you can make a donation via their JustGiving page here.

Pictured top L: Craig and his wife, Christina, pictured on their wedding day in June 2024. Top R: Craig hard at work preparing to undertake an epic endurance challenge in memory of High School friend, Chris Smith.