INTREPID Cornish explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison is proving that age is just a number as he prepares to take on an extraordinary challenge ahead of his 90th birthday.

At 88, Robin will row 22 miles in 11 hours along the River Tamar on May 8, marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day – all in aid of a cause close to his heart.

Swapping mountains and marathons for oars and endurance, Robin is taking on the feat to raise funds for the Thousand Year Trust, a charity he passionately supports.

The Trust aims to restore and expand Britain’s ancient temperate rainforest, a rare and vital ecosystem now reduced to scattered remnants across the British Isles.

“As I enter my ninetieth year and as my legs are no longer up running marathons and climbing mountains, I am planning to row 22 miles in 11 hours to support the Thousand Year Trust,” Robin shared. “Its purpose is to restore and triple Britain’s temperate rainforest, one of the most important but least understood ecosystems in the battle against climate change.”

Rather than tackling the open sea, Robin will row the width of the English Channel – symbolically – by going up and down the River Tamar. People are encouraged to cheer him on from the riverbanks to show their support.

Robin hopes to raise £200,000 through the challenge, helping fund the ambitious long-term vision of rainforest restoration across the UK.

He added: “I have received tremendous support from the PEDRU department of Plymouth University, whose research, amazingly, investigates ‘the psychological motivation and physiological resilience of explorers’

“They will be hooking me up to machines and monitors to evaluate the effect of such a challenge on a very old body.”

To support Robin’s campaign and contribute to the Thousand Year Trust, donations can be made by visiting his GoFundMe page: www.gofundme.com/f/ggnsm-xxxxx