SINCE becoming the youngest person ever to row across the Atlantic last year, Eoin Hartwright has split his time between A-Levels and herding sheep on his family’s farm.

Now, the 18-year-old from Harwell is getting ready to set off on his next challenge: rowing across the Baleriac Sea to fight anal cancer.

While most of his peers will be jetting off to spend their summer holidays in Ibiza or Barcelona, Eoin will will be rowing between the two next week in a four-man boat.

With three other crew members, each paddling for 12 hours a day, the 200-mile challenge should take them about 72 hours. It practically is a holiday for Eoin, who last February earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records after he spent 43 days rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic aged just 17. He also raised more than £5,000 for Oxford children’s hospice Helen and Douglas House along the way.

This time, he has nominated to take on the challenge in aid of the NOMAN campaign, which, in association with the HPV and Anal Cancer Foundation, wants to vaccinate all boys in the UK against the human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes five per cent of all cancers.

Eoin, who has just finished studying photography at the Oratory School in Woodcote, said: “HPV was something I knew nothing about before researching the race, so I jumped at the opportunity to raise awareness of something that has such a major impact on my peer group.

“Currently boys may not be protected, with only girls receiving the vaccination, but I want to ensure my younger brother receives protection just as my younger sister will.”

Eoin and his team will set off from from Ibiza tomorrow. Following the journey from the safety of their family farm on Milton Hill will be his mother Kate, 44, his brother Nico, six, and four-year-old sister Lola.