Dame Ellen MacArthur has revealed that during one of her round the world sailing adventures, her inspiration to get her through one of the most frightening ordeals, was a group of children she met who had gone through the perils of cancer.

She said this during a poignant speech at the opening of the new Scottish base for the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust at Largs Yacht Haven, to take teenager and young adults sailing who are recovering from cancer.

Dame McArthur said: “The first time I sailed with children in recovery from cancer and leakaemia was in France just before my round the world trip, and it was before this charity existed, and I didn’t know what to expect.

“I was worried and nervous - I didn’t know how I would work with a young person who had been so poorly, and within five minutes of setting foot on that boat I was having more fun that I had had in years - they were so full of bravery, courage and fun. They were just massively inspiring to me and it was because of that, and I could see what that trip could gave those young people, I decided to create the cancer trust here in the UK.

“I went to visit many of them in hospital outside Paris before I set off round the world, and in fact I carried a plaque with 100 of their names as I sailed around the world, and I used that as my inspiraiton.

“Many people will say to you when you’re racing, you are so brave and courageous after going round the world, but I will say to them, actually you are not brave and you are not courageous as real bravery is going through something that is incredibly difficult that you don’t choose.

“I chose that - I can’t say for a second that sailing around the world isn’t hard, of course it was, it pushes you right to the limits but I chose it and those young people didn’t, and they massively inspired me. There was a moment when I was in the southern ocean, I was about two and a half thousand miles away from the nearest town, and in one of the most isolated places in the whole planet.

However, ferocious gusts started to increase, and the vessel was in trouble.

Dame Ellen McArthur said that boat was on its side, mast in the water, and the waves were reached 60-80 feet, amid the most testing of circumstances. She quipped: “Somehow I had to get the boat the right way up which was a challenge as the hydraulic keel was on the wrong side, so for those of you who do sail it was a bit of a mess, and for those of you who don’t sail, it was also a bit of a mess!” “Once I got the boat the right way up, I carried on sailing, and with the wind increasing, I had to get the sail down, and realised part of the sail was jammed 40 foot up the mast, so I had to climb the mast which as a sailor is the one thing you don’t ever want to do, but I had to. It took an hour and a half and I pushed the baton down to the cockpit but then I realised I had left behind a vital piece of equipment which would allow me to descend to the deck more safely.

“I remember hanging there with one arm in a loop on the sale with a burning sensation on my shoulder, and I tried and tried to get my foot back on to my sail to gain control and get back on to deck, and for hours I couldn’t do it. Suddenly in my head, it wasn’t my family, my mum, my dad or my brothers, it was the kids in hospital who I was thinking of, because they were following me around the world, and I had to get home from them, and it was there and then that I decided to create a cancer charity in the UK, and in 2002 we started the cancer trust, and in 2003, we went out on our first trip.” The new base marks the expansion for the ten year old charitable trust, based in Cowes, Isle of Wight and set up by Dame Ellen MacArthur, to assist young people recovering from cancer and leukaemia through sailing.

The Trust has plans to increase the number of young people coming through the recovery and confidence building programme to 200 by 2017.

“We have been overwhelmed by the welcome and support we have received at Largs,” enthused chief executive Frank Fletcher. “We selected our new Scottish home carefully and are delighted by the excellent facilities at the Yacht Haven as well as the fabulous sailing waters that we will be sailing in. We could not have asked for more”.

“We are very honoured to have been selected by Dame Ellen and the Trust for their new base,” commented Yacht Haven director Carolyn Elder. “We are hugely supportive of the great work being carried out and look forward to working closely both the young people and the Trust team to aid their expansion.

Dame MacArthur said: “The facility is our northern base whereby we take young people in recovery from cancer and leukaemia sailing, and we run four day trips from Largs, and the young people sleep on the boat, eat and cook on the boat.

“The atmosphere on the boat is extraordinary, the young people all understand each other because they have been through the same experience and in that four day period they are able to rebuild their confidence and very able to step back in a normal life. The trips are fantastic.

“How proud and exciting I am - to actually be opening a base here is very special. To think we opened in the Isle of Wight four years ago, and now we are opening in Largs in Scotland, is great testament to the team, which is absolutely phenomenal, and the trust wouldn’t be where it is for today if it wasn’t for the young children which is ultimately what it is all about. Personally I have a great hold in my heart for Scotland - I love the west coast of Scotland as a cruising ground and I think it is the most beautiful in the world. I have family connections with the Isle of Skye too, and the west coast is a very special place for me.” Dame McArthur also spoke movingly about a girl called Maxine, who had undergone treatment, and arrived at her boat in her wheelchair on the pontoo. She had a single parent, and both were in floods of tears as this was the first time that they would be separated: “She had two veterbrae moved, and still undergoing treatment and very very week. It is an incredibly difficult time and you wonder yourself is this going to work - are we doing the right thing? Is this going to be a fun week or too traumatic, but her mother waved us goodbye, and Maxine calmed down and we sailed off down the Solent and as the minutes and hours went by, she changed, and after about 24 hours, she was throwing a water balloon as hard as anyone else, and absolutely loving it and the relationship between the four girls was quite extaordainary, and there was a lot of laughter and a huge amount of fun, but the most amazing thing was when we tied up back at the dock at Southampton, she ran down the pontoon to her mum, in four days. She didn’t need the wheelchair to walk, but the cancer had made her different, and all she wanted to be was normal, and she wrote a letter to us to say that trip was the light at the end of the tunnel, and since that trip, the light has got brighter and brighter, and she is now one of the most beautiful girls in her early 20s, and to see the contrast from that first day to today is amazing.” Thanks to the long-term support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery, who pledge to raise £1 million over the next 10 years, the trust will keep investing and developing the base in Largs until they are able to run a full summer programme from April–September taking a further 200 young people sailing per year.