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A Falklands war veteran who lost a leg in a mine explosion has abandoned his record-breaking attempt to row the Atlantic Ocean after being rescued.
John Mollison, 49, from Perth, was helped by coastguards and an oil rig support vessel after thick fog knocked out his communications systems.
Technical problems also left him with no way to generate power.
He set off from Massachusetts on 5 July with the aim of being the first amputee to row the ocean west to east.
Mr Mollison planned to row about 3,500 miles to Britain and wanted to return to Perth via the Forth and Clyde canal and ultimately the River Tay.
The start of his trip had already been delayed because of poor weather in the USA.
He was raising money for the British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association (Blesma).
A statement on the website following his adventure states: "It is with regret that I confirm that Molly's quest has been ended.
"In dense fog, in the deep of the night and rough seas, all communications were lost with no way to generate power due to technical malfunctions.
"This left us in a suicidal situation to think about continuing as the boat could not be seen and with no communications a decision was made between the team, the Falmouth and Canadian coastguards to start a rescue mission with the aid of an oil rig support vessel.
"With the use of their radars Molly was located and made safe."
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From BBC News:
