Nigel Fry, a general practice partner with Taunton-based chartered accountants Milsted Langdon, will soon be swapping spreadsheets for sails as he prepares to undertake the Challenge of a Lifetime.

The seven day charity yacht challenge, which starts on 9 April, will see the novice sailor traverse the notoriously choppy Celtic Sea as he travels from Cork to Portsmouth in a bid to raise money for St Margaret’s Hospice.

With a target of £3,000, Nigel is hoping that the donations will come flooding in for the charity that provides specialist palliative care, advice, support and respite to patients and their families living in Somerset and parts of neighbouring counties. This year, St. Margaret’s will be marking its 35th anniversary of caring for local people with terminal or life-limiting illnesses such as cancer, motor neurone disease and chronic lung disease by providing physical, emotional, social and spiritual care to patients and their families.

Nigel is keen to support the hospice and the work they do following a period when his mother was being looked after by a similar charity in Yorkshire.

The Challenge of a Lifetime has been broken down into eight legs and Nigel is participating in the final one. The journey started last October with sailors leaving Portsmouth for Falmouth in Cornwall, before venturing to the Canaries, Barbados, Antigua, the Bahamas, the Azores, and Cork. This final leg involves a 342 nautical mile trek to Gunwharf Quays Marina in Portsmouth.

When asked about what he was looking forward to, Nigel replied: “The bunks are too small for me, I’m not good without sleep, I don’t like being sea-sick, getting cold or wet, I don’t bend as much as I used to and I’ve never done this before. What better reasons are there to do this and raise a lot of money for a cause close to my heart?”

If you would like to make a donation, you can through Nigel’s JustGiving page at: https://www.justgiving.com/Nigel-Fry2/.