Chelsea Buckthorp

On Friday, Lincoln’s Holiday Inn hotel is set to host a world record attempt, as local Chris Farrell takes on the age 20-29 lightweight category for continuously rowing on a rowing machine.

Starting July 1, Farrell (23) will attempt to row for over 40 hours straight without sleep and with a mere 10-minute toilet break every hour.

The current title is held by Dave Holby at 30 hours. Farrell explained why he has decided to go for 40 hours:

“You could be cheeky and do 31 hours, but the aim is to do something that someone else wanting the title is going to look at and say actually that’s a lot.”

Farrell is not only competing for the record, but is also doing it as part of a fundraising event. He will be trying to raise money for Kidney Research UK and the Rowing Centre in Lincoln, where he trains.

Both these causes are very close to him, in particular the work done at Kidney research UK.

“It is a hereditary thing in my family. My granddad used to have kidney disease and the charity helped him out a lot, he used to be on dialysis and then eventually had a transplant, but that failed and he had to have another, but unfortunately he still died.

“It is a disease that is carried on in genes and it seems to be going through my family at the moment.”

Farrell also added that the disease seems to have skipped his generation. He hopes that the money raised will go towards finding out about the disease and trying to improve it.

Farrell has been training intensely in preparation for the event, and said that the hardest part is going to be going without sleep, and that he will be relying on the support others to get him through the two days.

“It’s just about keeping mind over matter really. The rowing club are coming down, my mum and dad will be doing quite a lot of the night-time shifts, and I’ve got some friends that are coming down for the whole event.”

He says that he is welcome to any ideas people may have to help him get through what is bound to be a gruelling 40 hours.

“Anybody’s welcome to come down. Fingers crossed, loads of people have said they will. Someone even said they wanted to read several books to me.”

For anyone who wants to get involved, the event will be kicking off at midday on Friday and there will even be the opportunity to do a bit of rowing beside Chris.

To find out more or to sponsor Farrell, visit kidneyresearchukevents.org.

Researching your family history has become a popular past-time fuelled by shows like BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?, where celebrities endeavour to trace their family trees. But what could you uncover by delving into your family’s past?

Many people made some sensational discoveries about their ancestors. Sharon Queen, who lives in Lincoln with her family, is no exception. She has been exploring her family history for several years, and has been astonished at what she has found.

Queen unearthed some amazing links to her family’s past. Among her discoveries are reports that a family member was hung for stealing sheep in the 1870’s, and relatives on her husband’s side lost their lives on the HMS Titanic.

She said: “We didn’t know anything about that until my youngest son, Thomas, was asked to do a school project. He asked ‘nanny Queen’ if she had any stories, and she suddenly said ‘well, yes actually your great aunty and uncle were on the Titanic’.”

Queen is most impressed by her link to Russian aristocracy. She says that it was her brother who had begun researching their family history because he wanted a plaque to put on the wall. They then learnt the story of their grandparents who moved to Lincoln in 1939.

Queen found her grandparents had been in service in the palace of Tsar Nicholas II, until the time of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, when they came to England.

“My grandfather lived and worked in the palace at St. Petersburg as a tailor to Tsar Nicholas II, and when the Russian Bolshevik uprising started, they had to flee to Tilbury docks.”

She has since discovered that her family name was originally Ravanovich — it was changed to Phillips on her grandfather’s arrival in England.

“When they landed there were so many of them with all these long names and my grandfather was Philip Ravanovich, they just said Mr Phillips.”

Queen suggested that this must have happened to so many people, and that potentially there are hundreds of families in England with similar mysterious histories.

She urges anyone with an interest in learning about their family tree to give it a go: “You never know what you’re going to find!”

For anyone interested in researching their own family history, the Lincolnshire Archives offer extensive resources, where it is free to browse.

James Stevenson, who works with the archive said: “The staff here are used to dealing with beginners in researching their family history. So as long as they’ve got a bit of basic information that’s all you need to get going.”

You can also access exhibitions and learning resources online at Lincs to the Past.

Photo: Kelly Moore for The Lincolnite