East Sussex woman with terminal illness prepares to set sail solo around the UK
A terminally ill woman from Seaford is determined to sail solo around the British Isles this summer.
GBR para-athlete Jazz Turner, 26, who has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), is aiming to become the first female wheelchair user to make this voyage on her own, non-stop and unassisted.
She hopes to raise a minimum of £30,000 for Newhaven and Seaford Sailability, an organisation that helps people with disabilities to get sailing.
People can donate at www.gofundme.com/f/project-fear and find out more about Jazz’s challenge at www.projectfear.uk.
When asked how she is feeling about the upcoming voyage, Jazz said: “Probably ‘terrified’ is an appropriate response! But also I’m very much looking forward to it now. It’s been a lot of work and a long time coming so it will be nice to actually go rather than just spend time fixing the boat.”
Jazz’s boat, which is an Albin Vega 27ft offshore racer-cruiser, is named ‘Fear’. She said: “The boat was basically completely unadapted when we got it so the priority has been adapting and making the boat work for me and my disability. As well as that, we’ve had to redo all the wiring. We’ve pretty much rebuilt the boat from scratch, apart from the hull.”
EDS is a group of rare and inherited conditions that affect connective tissues, which support tendons, ligaments, blood vessels internal organs and bones. Jazz’s EDS means she is now a full-time wheelchair user. She has been preparing physically for her challenge in the gym and has spent hours sailing and training in her boat.
Jazz’s challenge will take her from Brighton on Monday, June 2, and she will travel west around the coast, including around Ireland and Scotland. The voyage will last between four and eight weeks and Jazz will sail in the English Channel, the Irish Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea.
She said: “I’m looking forward to the peace you get when you get to do it as much as anything, and just taking on the challenge and seeing how far we get.”
Jazz will have satellite communications and other ways of getting in touch with the shore. She said her parents are somewhat ‘apprehensive’ but added: “They also knew that they kind of had to get on board because once I’ve made up my mind, it’s happening whatever. My dad deals with it by fixing every single little thing on the boat to make sure my boat’s bomb-proof. My mum’s dealing with it by contacting all the coast guard and RNLI stations all around the UK and islands so they know I’m coming.”
Jazz said she will be ‘totally reliant on sail power’ during the voyage. She said: “If there’s no wind the trickiest bit is I’ll lose progress or potentially go backwards on the tide. Physically, it’s a lot to manage my body and make sure I’m well enough to look after the boat.”
But she added: “It’s about proving that anything is possible with a little bit of imagination and a lot of hard work.”
Jazz said on the Project FEAR website that she hopes her mission will inspire people who face challenges, educate people about what it is like to have a life-limiting disability, raise awareness about EDS and prove that disabilities can be a ‘driving force’ instead of a limitation. Her initiative Project FEAR was launched at Brighton Marina Yacht Club on Friday, April 11. At www.projectfear.uk, Jazz said the acronym can mean ‘Forget Everything and Run’ or ‘Face Everything and Rise’.
In her life story, also available on the website, Jazz said she ‘fell into sailing by pure accident’ while on holiday in Cornwall. Her best friend had a ‘Learn to Sail’ voucher but did not want to go out in the pouring rain so Jazz went instead. She fell in love with sailing but did not know she had been born with EDS. When she was 19 Jazz snapped the tendons in her ankles by getting off a trampoline and MRI scans showed she had unhealed fractures in both ankles from years before. Jazz became a full-time wheelchair user after surgeries did not improve things. Her condition then progressed to the point where she has lung and heart problems, as well as a paralysed digestive and bladder system.
But Jazz kept sailing in adapted dinghies and boats, competing for GBR during the past three years. She won a silver medal in 2023 and a bronze medal in 2024 in the RS Venture Connect class.
In December 2024, with her quality of life being ‘severely affected’ by continual hospital stays, Jazz decided to move onto palliative care while withdrawing invasive, life-prolonging treatments. She was given about six months to live and became determined to make the most of her time left.