The Sunday Telegraph

Amputee targets able-bodied rowing record

- By Amy Woodyatt

A FORMER Royal Marine who lost his leg is rowing 3,500 miles solo across the Atlantic from Gibraltar to French Guiana in an attempt to beat the ablebodied world record.

Lee Spencer, 49, nearly died as he stopped to help the passengers of a car crash on the M3 in 2014.

Mr Spencer, who served in Afghanista­n and Iraq, was helping passengers out of the car when another vehicle crashed, sending debris flying and severing his right leg below the knee. “I woke up the next morning a disabled man,” he said.

While in hospital he met a wounded veteran who inspired him to join an allamputee rowing crew attempting to cross the Atlantic. With two Guinness World Records to his name, he is now rowing 3,500 miles across the Atlantic, hoping to finish in under 70 days.

Not only will he be the first physically disabled person to row this route solo and unsupporte­d from mainland Europe to mainland South America, he hopes to beat the able-bodied record set by Norwegian Stein Hoff in 2002.

Mr Spencer, who is raising money for the Royal Marines Charity and the Endeavour Fund, said: “If I can beat the able-bodied record, it would make such a statement that no one should be defined by disability.”

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 ??  ?? Former Royal Marine Lee Spencer lost his right leg below the knee while helping passengers after a car crash in 2004
Former Royal Marine Lee Spencer lost his right leg below the knee while helping passengers after a car crash in 2004

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