Four friends will be spending Christmas rowing more than 3,000 nautical miles across the Atlantic – all in the name of charity.

Stuart Markland, James Timbs-Harrison, Liam Browning, and James Kendall started their epic journey on Sunday as part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

The friends, whose team is called All Beans No Monkeys, hope to break the 39-day race record for the challenge – billed as the toughest race on earth – while raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

For Stuart, 31, a Quantity Surveyor from who lives in Highbury, beside the Emirates Staduim, the challenge has a special significance as his nephew suffers from the disease. It’s a life-shortening condition that causes the internal organs to be clogged with thick mucas, resulting in chronic infections and inflammation of the lungs.

“My nephew, Lewis Daly, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when he was six weeks old,” says Stuart.

“Given cystic fibrosis is very much close to my heart I have been keen to raise awareness amongst my friends and also in the wider community.”

The race, which the friends have spent two years training for, began in La Gomera and ends in Antigua.

“The mental part is the hardest bit to get used to – rowing two hours on, two hours off for around 40 days is a huge thing for our body to get used to,” says Stuart.

“We wont be able to stand up properly and we wont get off the boat until we reach Antigua. In those two hours off we need to eat, sleep, contact family, wash – there’s a lot to do and its a lot to get our heads around.”

To track their journey visit: www.allbeansnomonkeys.com