Voice of rowing on road to recovery

ROWING commentator Robert Treharne Jones is ready to get back behind the microphone, almost a year after suffering a stroke.

Known as the “voice of rowing”, he has been a senior race commentator with FISA, the international rowing federation, for more than 20 years, including at four Olympic Games.

Dr Treharne Jones, a qualified GP, who lives in Middle Assendon with wife Kate, has also provided race commentary at Henley Royal Regatta for 45 years.

He had hoped to return for last week’s event and mentor new voices but tiredness meant he missed two of the days for the first time in 47 years.

For several years, Dr Treharne Jones had suffered from symptoms associated with a leaky mitral heart valve and was advised by a cardiologist to increase his aerobic activity.

He began rowing more and would walk up to 30 miles per week. When his symptoms worsened in October 2023, a blood infection was discovered which was exacerbating his condition.

Dr Treharne Jones said: “I saw the results before my GP did and I thought, ‘Oh crikey, they’re all over the shop, what the heck’s going on?’

“I wasn’t surprised to get a phone call the following day that they’d arranged for me to be seen and assessed at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.

“The blood infection was seeking out the weak points in my circulation and exacerbating any difficulties that were already there. It made my leaky heart valve 10 times leakier and I was in the hospital for four months having intravenous antibiotics four times a day.”

Dr Treharne Jones’s calendar was full of rowing races, including the Paris Olympics, the royal regatta and the National Schools’ Regatta, leaving a week he could be operated on.

On July 18 he was admitted to the Royal Berkshire Hospital for a four-hour open-heart surgery to replace his malfunctioning valve with a metallic one.

He said: “When I woke up from the general anaesthetic, it was discovered that I couldn’t move my left arm and leg because I’d had a stroke while I was under the anaesthetic.

“A piece of gloop from the old valve had flown off around into my circulation and lodged in my brain.

“In films, the patient comes around from the anaesthetic and the family is there all smiling happily saying ‘The operation was a complete success’. In my case, it wasn’t.”

Dr Treharne Jones had emergency surgery to remove part of his skull to relieve the pressure on his brain, which had become inflamed.

Since being admitted 12 months ago, he spent time in nine different hospitals and was discharged from a centre in Oxford eight weeks ago.

After intensive specialist physiotherapy, occupational therapy and psychological help, he is now able to walk with a stick.

Dr Treharne Jones said: “When I first had the stroke, they told me I would have to work hard. I told them ‘I’m not afraid of hard work, bring it on’. But, bloody hell, it has been hard.

“I still have very vivid dreams about being able to walk without any problems or even being able to jog. I feel intense frustration because I’ve lost my independence and I need help with the most basic of things like washing and dressing.”

Dr Treharne Jones suffered a stroke on the right side of the brain, which preserved his speech, but worries about how quickly he can get back to his beloved career.

“There’s a lack of tangibility about the rate of improvement,” he said. “People who saw me then versus now say that I’ve done amazingly well and have got a lot better.

“I can walk now with a stick, whereas I couldn’t even walk before but, to me, it doesn’t feel that I’ve got a whole lot better, which is very disappointing. I just thank God that despite the fact that the stroke was on the right side of my brain, it missed my speech centre.

“I’m going to have to give some things up now because I can no longer keep that number of plates in the air. That’s one of the things that suffered as a result of my stroke — my motivation.”

While in hospital for the last 12 months, he was supported by friends, family and athletes.

Dr Treharne Jones said: “I’ve watched some really great races during my time and I’ve met some really great athletes. Many of them are still my friends, so that’s one of the things I’ve found very helpful while I have been unwell.

“So many of them have got in touch with me and I’ve had an Olympic medallist come and see me while I’ve been in hospital.

“One of the nicest things that was said to me by a female Olympian was that hearing my voice suddenly made them feel at home again during international races when they spend so much time away.”

Dr Treharne Jones first became involved in rowing in 1970 while at medical school at Barts Hospital in London. He then spent 20 years as a GP in Devon before deciding to concentrate on a career in journalism and medical IT systems.

For 15 years he was a member of the BBC Radio 5 commentary team for the Boat Race and he has covered the rowing world championships, commentating for Eurosport in Paris.

He was also press officer for Henley Royal Regatta for 15 years and was press and publicity officer for Leander Club in Henley for 14 years until 2019.

Dr Treharne Jones was born in Banstead, Surrey, on March 25, 1951. His father, Cyril, was a mining engineer and his mother, Elaine, a housewife. Due to his father’s work, the family moved around a lot, so his childhood was spent in Cheltenham, Swansea and Leicestershire.

Although he would while away hours in a dinghy on a pond, it was rugby that was Dr Treharne Jones’s first sport and it helped him get into medical school and shaped his career.

He later chose rowing and became the school’s captain of boats. His other interests included writing and he became editor of the hospital journal and by the time he qualified as a doctor in 1978 he was assistant editor of the national magazine Rowing.

Dr Treharne Jones also met his future wife Kate at medical school, where she was studying nursing.

They married in 1979 and went on to have three children, Madeleine, who now runs an online marketing business, Phillippa, who works at Aston University in Birmingham, and Annabel, who works for NFU Insurance.

As a junior doctor, he would move jobs every six months in order to gain the necessary accreditation to become a GP.

In 1981 an opportunity arose when he was sent by his magazine to cover the international regatta at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham. Then, when the event was taken over by the Amateur Rowing Association, now British Rowing, he was invited to take charge of press and publicity for the whole event.

Part of the remit was commentary, which he knew nothing about, so he invited a well-known rowing commentator to take charge. But two weeks before the next regatta the commentator pulled out, so he took the reins and never looked back.

Dr Treharne Jones described Henley’s commentary as more of a “formulaic announcement” and encourages the new voices of rowing to inform, enhance and entertain.

He said: “At Henley commentary, it is less of a commentary. If you go slightly off-script, then you might get your wrist smacked but it has been done in this way since 1977.

“To inform means to tell people what’s happening. To enhance means to give them information in a way that will add to what they can already pick up by seeing, touching, smelling and hearing. This all has to be done in an entertaining fashion, so you’ve got to know your stuff.”

Dr Treharne Jones hopes to be back commentating, hopefully at the Illuminated Boat Parade in Henley in September and singing in St Mary’s Church choir in Henley.

He said: “When you have a stroke, it affects you physically and psychologically and you need time to recuperate.

“One of the things that they’ve done throughout my rehabilitation is help me to set certain goals that I want to achieve.

“Sometimes I achieve those goals and sometimes I don’t because stroke recovery is a long, slow process. There are no sudden jumps in improvement. You can work as hard as you like but the rate of improvement is still slow and steady.”

Within the next year, he hopes to be living in his wife’s old family home in St Austell, Cornwall, which a team of builders are adapting for his medical needs.

The pair will be joined by their 12-year-old cat, Toffee.