Weather can't stop race bid

Team NHS - made up two nurses, a midwife and an NHS manager from South Yorkshire, along with other medical experts from across the country - began the journey yesterday.

There had been some doubt as to whether the Rolex Fastnet sailing race would begin but, even with a wind speed of force five, the team was aboard their boat Flying Banana.

Sheffield kidney nurse Tony Ward, midwife Alison Carey, Barnsley Primary Care Trust commissioning manager and team skipper Ian Carey, and Richard Lomas, whose wife and daughter work in Sheffield, are among the crew.