Two 'oarsome' ladies from Barnsley have joined five others who will be rowing their way across the English Channel next month.

 

The seven women have called themselves the Channel No 7 Rowers, a play on the famous Coco Chanel No 5 perfume brand, and even their specially made uniforms sport life rings in the style of the famous 'CC' perfume logo.

 

Linda Jackson, 47, of Silkstone, and Come Dine With Me contestant, Verene Farrell, 44, of Royston, are hoping to make it in one piece when they join pals from Wakefield to row from Dover to the French coast on June 23.

 

Between them they have 'little experience' of rowing but are feeling positive about taking on the choppy waters of one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

 

They are doing it to raise money for Meningitis UK and the Children's Heart Federation.

 

A friend of Linda's son died of meningitis. "It really struck a chord and we all said we need to do something," she said.

 

"But I thought we should do something a bit different and we'd seen the comedian John Bishop row the English Channel for Sport Relief.

 

"We all thought 'it's going to be hard' but with a bit of training we could do it."

 

The ladies met the team John Bishop trained with, looked at his boat and spoke to the support team who told the women that with 'a load of work' they could do it.

 

"We started off learning about timing and techniques rowing on the River Calder, going up and down there every weekend.

 

"We can do 20 miles now but what we need to do next is transfer that on to the sea to work against the current.

"So we're going back down to Portsmouth and then to Filey.

 

"We're doing a lot of endurance training and I thought rowing was all in your arms but it's not, it's in your stomach.

 

"It's taken over a bit really and we've raised tons of money and we've got more than £20,000 now."

 

• Visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/channelno7rowingteam.