‘I spent three months at sea on my own'

Charity worker Kelda Wood, 47, from Shrewsbury, made history last year but, as she tells new, spending 76 days alone in a small boat was the most difficult challenge she’s ever faced...

- LEBBY EYRES

By day two, I realised I hated being on my own in a boat. All I could see for miles around was the ocean – I was completely on my own and would be that way for another 74 days.

I knew I couldn’t quit, but in those desperate early days crossing the Atlantic, I even considered trying to break one of my bones, just so I could be rescued. Every morning I’d get up and think, “I can’t do this. I can’t go on.” But then I would say to myself, “But what choice do I have? I’ve got nothing else to do except row this boat.” And slowly the days built up and, before I knew it, I was two weeks in and things started to get better.

My journey to get to the start line in the Canary Islands for this 3,000-mile race to Antigua had been almost 20 years in the making. When I was 26 and aiming to be a three-day eventer in the Olympics, a freak accident derailed my dreams. I was at my stables in Cheshire when a huge bale of hay fell on top of my head. My whole body was compressed by the weight, forcing my foot out at a right angle and causing the bottom of my leg to shatter. My leg was nearly amputated, but the surgeons saved it and I ended up on crutches for nine months. The bones in my ankle fused together, so I could no longer flex it, meaning my horse riding dream was taken away from me.

For 10 years I struggled to accept my injury, but my mindset started to change after I climbed Kilimanjaro in 2010. I was slow, I kept falling over, and I thought I was holding my fellow climbers back, but at the end, they gave me the Hard As Nails award. I realized what I had to conquer was my mind, not my body.