Carl Gavey and his old school pals have raised nearly £8,000, taking part in two rowing challenges, from Sark to Jersey and Gorey to Carteret, in aid of a charity that helped his daughter Megan, who has an extremely rare condition.

The group of five school friends have got together to raise £7,800 for Jersey Child Care Trust.

Dave Carpenter, Joel Speight, Alex Sieroczuk and Stephen Prosser (the cox) trained regularly in their boat 'Betty' to prepare themselves for the challenges.

The team brainstormed for hours, trying to think of a way they could raise money for the charity, until Dave, who is the only one with any rowing experience, suggested the two-and-a-half-hour races.

The father of two says it is great to know that he has a group of friends he can fall back on and will support him.

"It's nice having a long friendship going back to school, it's really good to get together and it's been really sociable."

The team decided to take on the challenge because of Carl's eight-year-old daughter, Megan.

Megan was born with Jacobsen Syndrome, which has little research on the effects in later life.

It affects 1 person in every 100,000, through the deletion of Chromosome 11.

The eldest Gavey daughter struggles with her development, she has only recently started walking meaning she is several years behind her peers.

Jacobsen Syndrome stunts children's walking and speech, as well as causing issues with hearing and eyesight.

Despite Megan facing challenges every day, the Gaveys were determined their daughter would attend mainstream nursery, which was made possible with the JCCT.

The charity gave her a support worker, Jayne, who helped her with her education as well as communicating with her through sign language.

It is estimated the JCCT spend around £900 a month for the type of help that was given to Megan.

The cost of care is why the group of friends decided to embark on their fundraising campaign as they want to be able to give other children in Jersey the same chance Megan had.