Tom on TV

Trying to set up a rowing club in a State school is beset by challenges, most of them financial. I guess there's a good reason why the Olympic gold medallists are dominated by children from fee-paying schools, they have the money to invest in equipment and coaching.

I've written endless letters, spent evenings slogging away applying for grants, and we even made a Jaws-spoof fundraising video, but still we struggled for cash. Finally our luck changed and we got the offer of two old boats from a businessman and £1000 from Thames Water to repair them and adapt them for use by junior scullers... so finally the club has it's first boat.

And ITV did a really nice feature on it. We still need to fundraise to keep going but this was a very welcome success.