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Team completes 'living hell' row across Atlantic

Stuart Whincup
BBC Look North
World's Toughest Row Four men in shorts are standing on an open boat holding red flares. They are all topless and are cheering and laughing.World's Toughest Row
Team Graft have raised more than £220,000 for charity

Four men who faced huge waves, extreme weather and had their boat skewered by a fish have completed their 3,000 mile row across the Atlantic Ocean.

The group from Teesside and Yorkshire were taking part in the world's Toughest Row Challenge and have so far raised more than £220,000 for charity.

The race is billed as the ultimate test of endurance and adventure.

The crossing took thirty nine days, with the men describing it as "amazing, astonishing, horrific and like a living hell''.

Dean Fitzmaurice, Nick Perks, Richard Hornsey and Matthew Pitchforth are standing on a pontoon wearing shorts and t-shirts and holding oars.
The team decided to take on the challenge after a "few bottles of wine"

The four men, Dean Fitzmaurice and Nick Perks from Teesside, and Richard Hornsey and Matthew Pitchforth from Yorkshire, signed up for the race after "three bottles of red wine" and went on a learn to row course.

They called themselves Team Graft and were all raising money for Ronald McDonald House charities, which provide accommodation for the families of sick children.

The men had to patch up their boat midway through the race after it was spiked by a marlin, a fish species known for its long bill, which pierced the hull flooding the compartment.

World's Toughest Row Four men are standing bare chested and wearing black shorts in front of a sign which gives their time as 39 days, 16 hours and 27 minutes.World's Toughest Row
The four men rowed in shifts 24 hours a day

Mr Pitchforth described it as an experience he "never thought was possible, pushing your body to the absolute extremes".

He said the messages of support and well wishes, many from strangers, helped them through the most difficult days particularly between Christmas and New Year when they were pinned by strong winds and felt they were going backwards.

World's Toughest Row A crowd of people cheer and wave as the boat with the four men who made up Team Graft pull into the pontoon. The scene is lit by red flares.World's Toughest Row
Team Graft were the fourth team to complete the challenge

The men left La Gomera in the Canary Islands on 11 December and crossed the finishing line in Antigua 39 days later, cheered on by family and friends.

Mr Perks said he had become a bit of a ''coach potato'' and the challenge had given him "a new lease of life".

"It was absolutely amazing, crazy, foolish and something I would do again."

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