Graham’s ‘Oarsome’ Rowing Marathon

To celebrate his 50th birthday, Adoption Matters adopter Graham has decided to do something a little different and will be taking part in the Boston Rowing Marathon along with 50 others rowers on Sunday 20 September.

Graham, who is the Head of Rowing at The Grange School in Hartford, and his partner Kirsty adopted a five year old boy through the award winning adoption charity and now want to ‘give something back’ by raising funds in one of rowing’s toughest challenges with participants racing over the 52km course in quads and eights.

Graham (pictured above far right with some of his team) commented: “Five years ago, my partner Kirsty and I decided to look into adopting a child. After many months of soul searching and lots and lots of paperwork, we finally got the go-ahead to adopt and in October 2012 we welcomed our 5 year old little boy into our family. We cannot begin to tell you the joy that he has brought into our lives and to those close to us.

This October 2015, which co-incidentally is also National Adoption Week, we celebrate having him in our lives for three years and we felt it was the right time to put something back so others can be encouraged to either think about adopting or to help out children and parents who need some support. We were so impressed with Adoption Matters and have remained in contact with our social worker.

Given my link to the sport of rowing and an impending ‘significant’ birthday, I decided to set a challenge of getting a team of 50 rowers and helpers to row the Boston Marathon which starts in Lincoln and concludes some 52km later in Boston. I already have a team of 50 who range in age from 16 to 49 with the vast majority having never rowed anything like this distance before.

Whilst raising funds will benefit Adoption Matters, spreading the word about adoption is just as important. It is without question the best thing Kirsty and I have ever done”!

Norman Goodwin CBE, Adoption Matters Chief Executive commented: “We are very grateful to Graham for both sharing his adoption story with us and helping to raise funds. To achieve a team of 50 is an amazing feat and we want to wish them all good luck for the day.

Graham has already raised over £650 of his £1K target. To support Graham’s fundraising event visit https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/bostonrowing2015