Former firefighter to row 5,500 miles across Indian Ocean for dementia charity

Independent

10-03-2025

An ocean-rowing event manager is to row 5,500 miles across the Indian Ocean within 100 days to remember his friend who died after living with early onset Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD).
Billy Taylor, 52, from Selsey in West Sussex, will row from Exmouth, Western Australia to Mombasa in Kenya in early June – and he will be joined by three other crew members on a 29ft by 5ft carbon fibre boat.
They aim to raise £500,000 for Race Against Dementia (RAD), an organisation focused on research to find a cure for the disease, and Rock2Recovery, a mental health charity supporting veterans and those in Armed Forces.
The former firefighter wants to raise awareness about early onset dementia and Parkinson's disease after his school friend, Alex Flynn, died in 2022 after living with PDD, whom he credits for inspiring him to take up ocean rowing.
'I'm not smart enough to do the research myself and I don't have a lot of money to give to research and charity, but I could do something like this (row) to try and raise awareness and raise money for people that are doing real good stuff,' he told the PA news agency.
Mr Taylor's friend was diagnosed aged 34, which forced the pair to have 'some very long, honest, open and frank conversations about what it was going to mean for him'.
It is estimated around 982,000 people live with dementia in the UK – while more than a third do not have a diagnosis, according to Alzheimer's Society.
The ocean rower said speaking to people with loved ones living with dementia 'struck me that this (disease) is so prolific'.
'It's horrific. It robs people of the person they are,' he added.
He hopes his ocean row will help others learn about the impact of dementia on people and their families, and raise funds towards vital research into the disease.
'That half a million is a lot to charities like Rock2Recovery because it's a small charity so that can make a huge difference,' he said.
'With that £10,000 or £50,000 for RAD you can pay for a fellowship or you can pay for a research project for years.'
The crew will row in pairs rowing for two hours and breaking for two hours maintaining that pattern every day over 100 days, all while facing giant waves, sea wildlife, being capsized and sweltering temperatures.
Mr Taylor said he made a conscious choice to choose a crew which is made up of two men and two women to represent men and women equally.
'There's two guys and two girls and we've deliberately gone for a completely mixed crew just because there's a lot of divide between men and women. It certainly seems to be that way,' he explained.
'It's quite the levelling platform the the ocean, so it was nice to represent the girls and guys getting on well together and achieving something together.'
His upcoming challenge will mark Mr Taylor's sixth ocean row having rowed the Indian Ocean once before, once across the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii and three times across the Atlantic.
He said being 'disconnected' from technology while ocean rowing helps him to 'realise his potential'.
'It's an opportunity to decompress and switch off,' he said.
'The other thing is you can't get off (the boat) so it doesn't matter how hard (the row) is.
'You know you've got to keep going, so when you get to the other side it forces you to realise what your potential is.
'I think that's an incredible thing to be able to achieve.'
My Taylor said the crew are also working with the Michigan University to collect samples to measure how much plastic is in the Indian Ocean and they are collaborating with thousands of schools in UK sharing their journey to classrooms via video link.