A TEACHER who windsurfed 1,000 nautical miles for charity has vowed to raise more money despite suffering further medical complications.

Lea Spencer, who teaches maths at Royal Manor School, reached his initial target of windsurfing 1,000 nautical miles and reached speeds of 35 knots.

He aimed to raise £1,000 for the British Heart Foundation and after breaking this initial target vowed to go on and do 2,011 nautical miles by the end of the year.

But three weeks after starting the new leg of the challenge Lea suffered a multiple pulmonary embolism in both his lungs.

He said: “I was rushed to hospital with blood clots in my lungs. I’m off work at the moment. There is nothing the doctors can do. I’m on tablets and I’ve got pain in my lungs from the swelling.”

The 37-year-old, of Dorchester Road, Weymouth is now on anti-coagulants, blood pressure tablets and strong painkillers to try to help the condition.

Lea said he was very happy to have achieved the first target.

He said: “I was really pleased when I got to the 1,000 nautical miles and reached 35 knots in the same week. I was over the moon.”

He said that he hadn’t realised what was happening when he had the blood clot in his lungs and thought he had a cold from school.

He said: “I felt run down, I got through the first week of the summer holidays and I was gasping for breath.”

Lea eventually called a doctor who got an ambulance straight out.

He said: “The doctors said I had a pulmonary embolism in both lungs and in the right lung there was damage which was where the pain was coming from. They don’t know what caused it.”

He added: “The clot went through my lung and it got filtered out by my lung.”

So far he has raised £1,580 and hopes to raise more but admits it could be a struggle.

He said: “I had my goals but I might not hit the other goals, but I have to look after my health.”

He added: “I’m happy I have done this though.”

To donate to Lea’s windsurf challenge and to read about how he is getting on visit the website redsurfbus.com