An 88-day relay for life
After braving barnacles and brine in the name of cancer research at Yale, Paul Ridley stepped into the record books and onto dry land at 2:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
Upon his arrival at Antigua, Ridley became the youngest American to row, solo and unassisted, across the Atlantic Ocean — a transatlantic journey he completed to raise $500,000 for melanoma research at the Yale Cancer Center.
Departing Jan. 1 from the Canary Islands, Paul rowed to Antigua, an approximately 3,000-mile journey, rowing an average of 11 hours and consuming 8,000 calories each day. The journey —...
Great story, but I'm left with some burning questions:
1 - How old is Ridley? Is he a Yale grad? What year? If not, what is his connection to Yale?
2 - Why did he choose rowing the Atlantic rather than, say, running an ultra marathon as a way to raise money? Was he a rower at Yale?
3 - Aren't Portugese man 'o war extremely poisonous? How could you wear one on your head and not get stung?
Great story, typically shoddy reporting from the crack team at the YDN.
I had some of the same questions, and went to the web to find answers - Ridley is 25, and from Stamford CT, which may relate to his connection to Yale. Given the "youngest" element of the story, leaving the age out was a big blooper.
Ridley is not a Yale grad. He is 25 years old. He rowed at Colgate. He told CNN: "I am not a scientist, but I can row."
To answer the remaining questions.
1.) He didn't actually put the man o war on his head, that was a joke.
2.) His connection to Yale:
The money raised through Row for Hope will go toward expanding the research efforts of Mario Sznol, the vice president of medical oncology at the Yale School of Medicine and co-director of the Yale Cancer Center melanoma program. Sznol is currently developing the clinical research program for patients with melanoma at the Yale Cancer Center by expanding the clinical trial opportunities the center offers.
For anyone reading this who wants to do their part to fight against cancer without rowing across an ocean, Yale is having its own "Relay for Life", an American Cancer Society fundraiser, on April 18th. More information can be found at: www.relayforlife.org/yale