A TEENAGER from Exbourne with a huge talent for rowing has this week resumed her training thanks to a generous sponsor who has bought her a racing boat.

Nicole Dunn, 17, had seen her hopes of training towards competing in Team GB further down the line interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, though, she is able to resume her training after Andrew Stead of Maximedi Ltd, a PPE supplier based in Wales, saw Nicole’s crowdfunding appeal for her own boat.

He stepped in with £10,000 buy Nicole a Hudson USP boat and equipment, including roof racks, to enable her to start training. She will compete in clothing bearing the company’s logo.

Nicole said she was hugely grateful to everyone who had supported her online appeal to raise the money to buy the boat, which she is now returning.

‘I am massively grateful to Andrew Stead and Maximedi,’ she said.

‘This means I can take my next step. I didn’t have the kit to get to the competitions and I didn’t have the boat to use, but this has given me the opportunity to take my rowing to the next level.’

She will take the boat with her when she returned to her A-level studies at boarding school, Shiplake College near the River Thames near Henley, where she is studying in the sixth form after gaining a rowing scholarship.

Nicole had already raised £2,000 herself working as a waitress at The New Inn in Sampford Courtenay and rearing calves on the family dairy farm. She now plans to use that money towards her studies at university.

Nicole had been due to take part in trials for competing in rowing internationally after winning gold in a prestigious competition — the National Scullers Head Meet — last December.

She has now resumed her GB training, taking part in her first training camp since lockdown this week in her new racing boat.