Kingston Grammar School (KGS) completed a gruelling 70km sponsored row over the weekend to raise £20,000 which will go towards life-saving defibrillators and cardiac testing in schools.

In the early hours of Saturday morning (10 September), student athletes, alumni and members of the school's Veterans Boat Club embarked on the route, setting off from Henley in Oxfordshire at 6am.

The team travelled through Marlow, Cookham, Maidenhead, Bray, Windsor and Eton - where they stopped for lunch - Staines, Shepperton, Walton-on-Thames and Molesey before arriving back at KGS Boat Club, near Hampton Court Palace, in the early evening.

En route the team navigated a total of 16 locks, manned by parents, volunteers and lock keepers.

In a rowing team boasting a combination of youth, strength and experience, with rowers aged from 14-83, the team completed the remarkably testing route in 13 hours, with all rowers wearing black armbands as a sign of respect for the late passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

This year the school rowed in honour of former pupil, Rob Allen, who died suddenly from an undiagnosed heart condition in 2018.

His family set up RALPHH (Robert Allen Life Promotion And Healthy Hearts Trust) to increase public access defibrillators nationwide and to fund ECG screening for young people.

It has recently provided significant funding towards two local Public Access Defibrillators (PADs) at Molesey and Sunbury locks. Rob was a National Schools rowing champion in 2003, rowed at Henley Royal Regatta and had been a coach at the school boat club.

Chairman of the heart charity, Richard Allen, told British Rowing: "It's marvellous that Kingston Grammar School have got behind this. The rowers are all heroes; it's no small task to row 70 km. The money raised from this row will help us to fund at least eight more public access defibrillators."

Kingston Grammar School has a strong rowing tradition, with former pupils also including Olympic Champion James Cracknell and five World Champions, and has been organising the sponsored row every four years for the past 43 years.

Ed Green, KGS Director of Rowing, added: "I'm delighted that we achieved what the students set out to do, some of them having previously only rowed a fraction of what they accomplished today, and I'm pleased that we've made our target, raising money for a charity that's so close to the hearts of this club."

KGS' fundraiser in aid of RALPHH is still open for donations and can be found here.