POLAR explorer Mike Stroud is backing two Lymington men who are preparing to row across the Atlantic.

Dr Stroud joined Sir Ranulph Fiennes on a series of record-breaking expeditions before embarking on equally gruelling challenges in some of the hottest temperatures imaginable.

Now he is supporting Greg Bailey and half-brother Jude Massey's bid to raise £100,000 in the battle against skin cancer.

Greg, 27, and Jude, 18, are planning to start their epic 3,000-mile voyage on January 15.

Dr Stroud was the guest speaker at the duo’s biggest fundraising event - a £100-a-head gala dinner at the five-star Chewton Glen Hotel in New Milton on Monday .

Dubbed the Ocean Brothers, Greg and Jude have already raised £36,000 and hope that money raised by the dinner will take them past the halfway mark.

Dr Stroud has worked for the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust since 1996.

In the late 1980s he and Sir Ranulph took part in five North Pole expeditions - one of which raised more than £2 million for charity.

Later they turned their attention to the Antarctic, completing the first unsupported crossing of the continent.

In 1994 Dr Stroud went from one temperature extreme to another, leading the UK team in the Marathon of the Sands - a trans-Sahara multi-marathon.

Eight years later he achieved the first unaided non-stop crossing of the desert in Qatar, covering more than 200 kilometres in just three days.

Later he was reunited with Sir Ranulph for another gruelling challenge, running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

In 2012 Dr Stroud helped carry the Olympic Torch through Southampton ahead of the London Games.

The gala dinner included an auction conducted by Lymington-based round-the-world sailor Manley Hopkinson.

The Ocean Brothers are flying out to the Canary Islands in two weeks’ time.