You may know of Dave Holby who over a 2.5 period rowed 40,075km on the Concept2 rowing machine in Basingstoke shopping centre, The Malls. Dave Holby claims his place in the record books

Dave is a nine-times endurance rowing world record holder and, in 2010, set a Guinness World Record by becoming the first person to row the distance of the Earth's equator on a land-based rowing machine. He has committed himself to a lifetime's worth of endurance challenges to raise funds for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and to help, encourage and inspire children to find themselves through sport. Dave is a qualified football coach and is currently studying for a degree in Sport Science to then train as a PE Teacher.

But did you know that Dave is also a patron of Support through Sport UK? It is a national sports charity that believes that sport has the power to improve lives. The charity was founded in 2012 by Helen Keeling.

Helen contacted us recently to let us know more about the charity, she told us that Support through Sport UK has six main aims:

1. to raise awareness of UK sporting clubs for low-participation groups
2. to encourage sports clubs to become more inclusive and to encourage the use of sport as part of rehabilitation programmes
3. to profile inspiring sports clubs and events
4. To interview famous sports stars and unsung sports charity workers to understand why they think sport's so great and to learn what benefits they believe sport can bring
5. To raise awareness of some of the more unusual sports that you can get involved in
6. To raise awareness of the various companies that sell bespoke sports equipment for younger athletes, disabled athletes, older athletes etc

If you would like to learn more about Support through Sport UK then take a look at their website - http://www.supportthroughsport.co.uk/ and, if you're involved in a sports club, register its details at

http://www.supportthroughsport.co.uk/register. It's free to register and will help to raise awareness of your club.

You can also contact Helen & Dave directly through the website.