Making the Money Work: Kiko Matthews on how you fund rowing the Atlantic

This bonus podcast episode is from This is Money's new special series Making the Money Work, in partnership with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Andi Peters and Simon Lambert talk to record-breaking Atlantic solo rower Kiko Matthews.

How do you fund a life less ordinary?

For most of us financial life means paydays, bills, mortgages and attempts to save or invest, but for others it is very different.

If you decide to row the Atlantic, are an Olympic boxer, or have made a career out of having adventures or doing comedy, what on earth do you do with your finances?

In our new special podcast series Making the Money Work, in partnership with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, we talk earnings, budgeting and savings with those whose lives and finances roam far from the norm.

The five podcasts are hosted by Andi Peters, alongside This is Money’s Simon Lambert, and every fortnight over the next ten weeks you can listen to a new interview with a different special guest about their financial lives.

This is Money’s Podcast will continue to appear each Friday as usual, and the Making the Money Work podcasts will be published fortnightly as a bonus episode in the feed.

The first episode features Kiko Matthews, who on 22 March 2018, became the fastest woman to row the Atlantic, solo and unsupported, over 49 days, 7 hours and 15 minutes. 

Through sponsorship of her world record attempt she raised more than £105,000 for King's College Hospital by the end of that year.

But that isn’t even half the story, because in 2009 Kiko had been diagnosed with Cushings Disease, a rare and life-threatening condition, which causes tumours on the pituitary gland that controls the body’s hormones.

That life-changing discovery led her to quit her job as a science teacher, qualify as a paddle-boarding instructor and set up her own business, before deciding to row the Atlantic, despite not being a rower.

Midway through her training in 2017, her Cushings Disease returned and although she had to undergo neurosurgery, Kiko pushed on with her Atlantic rowing attempt.

Since then, Kiko has focussed on environmental campaigning and recently cycled round the coasts of Britain and Ireland completing beach cleans.

On this podcast, Kiko tells us her fascinating story, discusses her finances - and reveals just how you go about funding rowing the Atlantic.