TWO friends from Oxford are training hard for one of the world's toughest rowing races to raise thousands of pounds for a hospice in Wales.

Oxford Rowing Club members Imogen Crawford-Mowday and Sian Findlay are taking on the Celtic Challenge - a 90-mile endurance race across the Irish Sea.

Teams must race from Arklow, on the east coast of Ireland, to Aberystwyth, in Wales, in a Celtic longboat. It could take as long as 20 hours.

Imogen, 30, who works at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and Sian, 24, a graduate of Magdalen College, are busy balancing demanding training schedules with work and family commitments to make sure they are ready for the event in May.

Imogen said: "It's been a lifelong ambition of mine to take part in the challenge and I dragged Sian along kicking and screaming."

"We will be grappling with waves and going up and down a lot," Imogen added. "We will have lots of blisters on our hands and bottoms."

Fourteen crews are tackling the race, which starts on Saturday, May 3. Imogen and Sian's crew consists of 12 rowers, ten of whom are from Tenby, in South Wales, although only five will be in the longboat at any one time. The rest of the team will travel on a support boat.

Imogen said: "It's a fast race and we're hoping to reach Wales in 16 or 17 hours.

"The most difficult thing will be rowing through the night.

"We will lose the horizon and that could make people seasick - we won't have had any sleep by that point as well."

The Celtic Challenge is raising funds for the Paul Sartori Foundation, a hospice home care service.

Imogen, whose team hopes to raise £4,000 for the charity, said she was keen to help after losing an uncle and a close friend to cancer in recent months.

She said: "Getting care at home is such a lovely thing.

"It's important people get looked after where they want and it's really nice for the family."

Anyone wishing to sponsor Sian and Imogen, should go to www.justgiving.com/tenbycelticchallenge