A British husband and wife team have completed the equivalent of 20 marathons as Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines’ ship Borealis travels ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ – in a bid to raise £10,000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) that operates lifeboats on the coasts of Britain, the company said in a statement.

Following as closely as possible in the footsteps of fictional explorer Phileas Fogg, smaller ship Borealis set sail on the ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ cruise at the end of February, with Stephen and Claire Ward, from Wellington in Somerset, among the guests due to join.

However, when Stephen was unable to join at the last minute, the couple decided to continue with the feat to complete the equivalent of 10 marathons each - with Claire tallying up her miles on board, and husband Stephen completing his ashore, including by running the Brighton Marathon earlier this month. The pair have already completed 22 marathons between them, and plan to continue to see how many they can accomplish in total.

To help the couple towards their fundraising, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines challenged other guests and crew aboard Borealis to see if they could travel the 30,828 miles of their cruise by walking, running, cycling, swimming or any other means before the end of the cruise in May.

Guests have been competing sponsored laps of the deck and are able to log any miles walked ashore as they explore, while crew have been completing sponsored relay races in the pool, and have so far travelled 15,659 miles.

As a united team effort, Stephen, Claire, guests and crew have raised £5,055 for the RNLI – with over three weeks still to go before Borealis arrives back in Southampton on 13 May 2023.