‘If you can dream it, you can do it’: disabled sailor completes record-breaking voyage
Alastair Hignell
Last December Jazz Turner was given just six months to live. On Monday she became the first disabled woman to sail solo and unassisted around the British Isles
Jazz Turner will be home for the 27th birthday a doctor told her she might not live to see. The terminally ill British sailor has just completed her attempt to become the first disabled woman to sail solo and unassisted round the British Isles.
Unsure whether she would be home in time for her birthday on Tuesday 8 July, Turner had stowed some cards and presents carefully on board her boat before her trip began. They are now lying soaked and soggy in one of the lockers, but will be opened at home.
Turner, who uses a wheelchair, set off from Brighton on 2 June, knowing that her body was failing because of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, an incurable genetic condition that affects connective tissue. Her joints kept dislocating, she was prone to blackouts, her digestive system was not processing food properly and the invasive treatments needed to keep her functioning left her wiped out with infection after infection. Last December, medics gave her six months to live.
But Turner decided that instead of seeing out her days in a hospice, she would buy a boat, which she called Fear, and sail into the record books.
Despite a compass malfunction in the first week and running aground in the last week, she smashed both her time and financial targets. She initially aimed to raise £30,000 for disabled sailors in Newhaven, East Sussex, revised it to £50,000 after an encouraging early response and has now already surpassed that.
The 2,000-mile voyage took its toll. Last Sunday, her boat ran aground near Folkestone after she dozed off and slept through her alarm. She had to crawl on hands and knees across jagged rocks carrying an anchor, so that when the tide came in, it would take the vessel back out to sea, and in the process ensure that she complied with the conditions of her challenge.
She had been at sea for four weeks, eating nothing but dehydrated food, chocolate bars and crisps. Last Monday, the hottest day of the year so far, she sailed back into Brighton Marina, escorted by a flotilla of boats, to a raucous reception from well-wishers, friends and, most importantly, her parents, Chris and Carolyn, and her dog Phoebe.
I don’t know what the future holds – but I know I want to keep going
Jazz Turner
There were jubilant scenes at the clubhouse, where sailors from Newhaven in wheelchairs queued up to cheer one of their own: Turner shed tears as she took in the size of the welcoming party, her joyful embrace of her parents – and the frenzied excitement of her dog. “The four weeks without them were actually pretty shitty,” she said. “Now here they were, to touch, to hold. I had no words.”
But when the TV crews arrived, she found all the right things to say. “Anything is possible,” she told them. “It might require a little or even a lot of imagination at times. You may need a large army to help and you might need to do things differently. But if you can dream it, you really can do it.”
Later that afternoon, she had a shower – her first in four weeks –and her favourite cheesy chips. But by Wednesday she was back at the marina, cleaning, clearing, tidying, “getting rid of all the muck”, in preparation for an out-of-the-water inspection of the boat. She has already set her sights on competing in the parasailing category at the European championship in August.
After completing her challenge in just over half the time she allowed, Turner has some time on her hands. For now, she is recovering from the journey. “My body is bruised and battered after being thrown about the boat by the waves and a wind that at times topped 30 knots,” she said. “My knees are scraped and grazed from the Folkestone rocks and my hands are still swollen. Throwing up my food is a daily occurrence. In general, I feel crap, physically.”
Turner knows she is likely to die too young. “I don’t know what the future holds,” she said. “But I know I want to keep going. I now know that, if you feel good mentally, it helps physically. I’m tired after the last few weeks but I won’t be sitting around.”
Nor do her parents expect her to. “She has always refused to be defined by her disability,” said Carolyn. “She’ll soon have another mad scheme to tell us about,” added Chris.
Photograph by Tom Pilston for The Observer
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