You know when you go on your holidays for a well-earned break, and you end up helping to repair the side of someone’s house to protect them before a hurricane hits

No, didn’t think so.

But that’s exactly what happened to Mike Boss, of the Salisbury based Asset Finance company, The Boss Corporation, some 20 years ago over on a family holiday in Washington DC.

Except things didn’t go quite to plan, after climbing up a ladder to help with the repair,  the ladder slipped, and Mike suffered a broken right arm, a broken foot, but more importantly completely shattered his left arm.

After undergoing four hours of surgery whilst in Washington, and a few more stays under-the-knife once back at home to the UK, the prognosis was that he would never get the full use of his arm back again.

Mike then spent four months, Monday to Friday, in the excellent Wessex Rehabilitation Centre (part of Salisbury District Hospital), undergoing intensive Physiotherapy. Thanks to their care and patience as much as their skill and expertise, he walked away with a 30% range of movement in the arm.

A few years later, he wanted to raise money for the Centre to thank them and to do something that would raise some valuable funds for their life-changing work. In his own words “I’m not much of a marathon man, and as for jumping out of planes, I’d rather not do anything ‘at height’ again, thanks very much. So, I settled on the next best (if not entirely obvious) method of raising some money. I set about borrowing a giant duck-shaped pedalo, and made plans to sail to The Isle of Wight across The Solent – AKA, the UK’s busiest shipping lane”

The week before the event, on a local radio show, World Renowned Sailor, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, said it couldn’t be done. He probably had a point, but Mike and his friend/ co-pilot did it anyway, and raised nearly £3000 for such a great cause.

Back to today, Mike has already got plans to re-float the duck at some point to help support the charity, but, in the meantime, will be using his business to support the cause.