‘Brutal ordeal’ for MND charity rowers as they arrive in Scotland

The four-person crew set off from Land’s End on 25 July and headed north into the Irish Sea, before 20-knot headwinds forced them to stop at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire.

They returned to Cornwall and started the challenge again in the other direction.

Less than two weeks later, they were contacted by HM Coastguard when MP Rupert Lowe posted online having mistaken them for “illegal migrants”.

Almost seven months later, Parker, who is from Kilmarnock but who now lives in Surrey, said the challenge had been a “hell of a lot of hard work” but the “best thing I’ve ever done in my life”.

“When it’s two in the morning, in the pitch black, in the fog, with the sea smashing the boat around, with your oars going in different directions, when you’ve been rowing for seven days, two hours on, two hours off, and you’re cold – it’s brutal,” he said.

“I’d be lying if I said you don’t think ‘why on Earth am I doing this’ every so often.

“[But] I know exactly why I’m doing this, and this is great. I’m so lucky that I get to do something like this.”