I’m taking on the challenge of a lifetime next month – rowing across the Atlantic Ocean in a bid to raise awareness of stem cell research, a field of science that might have helped the young daughter of a friend win her battle against blood cancer.

Three of us – small company investor Martin Beaumont, software industry executive Hamish Miller and I – make up Team Margot Atlantic Rowers, one of 30 crews in this year’s Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, a 3,000 mile (5,000 km) race across the ocean starting in La Gomera on the Canary Islands on December 12 and ending in Antigua around 40 days later.

Although I was a mainstay of the GB kayaking team back in the late 1980s my rowing experience is more limited – a season or so at Bryanston School 35 years ago and rather more sessions on the ergometer at my local gym in the past 12 months. My motivation for braving 20+ meter waves and storm-force winds – not to mention six weeks of dubious sanitation – is the fate of Margot Martini, the two-year-old daughter of friends, who succumbed to blood cancer when her parents were unable to find a matching stem cell donor in time to save her.

We don’t want your money. What we’d love is for people to become aware of what the Stem Cell Register is, to click through and consider signing up. It’s easy, it’s safe, it can save lives and help families in terrible predicaments all over the world. You can find out more on the team website at www.werowyouregister.org

The number of donors is growing, but all too slowly. Moreover, there are insufficient donors from the black, Asian and mixed race communities.

It takes 1.5 million strokes to get across the Atlantic and we want one person to click through for every stroke we take – that’s the only motivation we really need.

There’s a tracking device on our boat so you will be able to follow our progress in real time from December 12 here.

Please take a few minutes to sign up for the register. It’s free and easy. You could save a life!