Team Legless: Four soldiers, three legs and a 3,000 mile rowing mission

'Row2Recovery'
'Team Legless'
Four servicemen
Three legs between four of them
The challenge
The rowers
Lance Corporal Cayle Royce
Already completed it
Colour Sergeant Lee Spencer
Guardsman Patrick Gallagher
Flight Sergeant Nigel Rogoff
Gruelling shift
Special boat
‘It’s the simple things’
Making it in 46 days
Prince Harry
'Row2Recovery'

'Row2Recovery' is a British unincorporated association of volunteers that assists military adaptive rowing. It has helped complete four successful rows across the Atlantic for different charities.

Picture – Instagram @row2recovery

'Team Legless'

In December 2015, 'Team Legless' departed on their journey across the Atlantic, possessing four rowers who were all amputees.

Four servicemen

The crew was made up of four servicemen, with two of them being injured in service and two injured in accidents outside the line of duty in the UK.

Three legs between four of them

The challenge they had to complete was a mammoth task for four able-bodied rowers, but for four rowers with three legs between them, the challenge looked near impossible.

The challenge

The four ex-servicemen set themselves the challenge of crossing the Atlantic from La Gomera, Canary Islands, to Antigua in the Caribbean, a 3,000-mile trip.

The rowers

Here are the four servicemen who completed the challenge!

Lance Corporal Cayle Royce

The team's captain, Cayle Royce, lost both of his legs and several fingers in an explosion whilst serving in Afghanistan's Helmand Province in 2012. The blast also broke his neck and punctured his heart, putting him in a coma for a month.

Already completed it

Lance Corporal Royce had already rowed the Atlantic with Row2Recovery, completing a voyage with Team Endeavour in 2014.

Colour Sergeant Lee Spencer

Colour Sergeant Lee 'Frank' Spencer lost his right leg below the knee when he was hit by a piece of flying debris while helping at a traffic accident in September 2014.

Picture – Instagram @leespencer_rm

Guardsman Patrick Gallagher

Guardsman Patrick Gallagher lost his right leg below the knee from an IED in Nad-e Ali, Helmand, Afghanistan, in 2009.

Picture – Instagram @row2recovery

Flight Sergeant Nigel Rogoff

Flight Sergeant Nigel Rogoff, Royal Air Force, lost his left leg above the knee while taking part in a parachuting display in December 1998.

Picture – Instagram @blesma

Gruelling shift

Leaving the Canary Islands, the servicemen completed shifts of two on and two off and rowed for two hours non-stop for nearly 50 days.

Special boat

The rowers sat in a 25-foot fiberglass boat, aptly named 'Legless' that had specifically adapted metal slots the crew could hook into and push against to row.

‘It’s the simple things’

According to cnn.com, Paddy Gallagher said: "If you can get through rowing an ocean, chances are you can walk down the shop for a pint of milk, It's the simple things you wouldn't think about."

Making it in 46 days

The four servicemen made it across the Atlantic Ocean, making it to the Caribbean in 46 days, six hours, and 49 minutes.

Prince Harry

According to @KensingtonRoyal on X, Prince Harry said: "It never ceases to amaze me the commitment, determination and resolve of these men and women."

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