A RETIRED Army major is on the Isle of Wight for his latest charity challenge.

Tomorrow (Sunday), “Major Mick” Michael Stanley will row his homemade tin boat, the Tintanic II, on an Island waterway.

The 81-year-old will be leaving the Folly Inn in Whippingham at around 11am and will row down the River Medina, to Trinity Pontoon in Cowes.

Mr Stanley sold his original boat for £480 for charity, so he is using his second version, Tintanic II, for use in his latest fundraising bid.

Mr Stanley, who has previously raised tens of thousands of pounds for charity, is hoping to collect at least £5,000 for Children on the Edge, a charity based in Moldova and Romania supporting refugees from the war in Ukraine.

Dressed in a Union Flag suit, Mr Stanley set off from Chichester Yacht Club at Birdham, West Sussex, for the first leg of his challenge on board the Tintanic II which was decked out in Ukrainian flags.

Describing his motivation to support Ukrainian refugees, he said: “We have seen such terrible pictures on the television and people are in absolute dire straits and anything I can do to help in a very small way will go some way to helping.”

Mr Stanley said he had an open target of about 50 miles for the challenge, depending on the weather.