As a young girl, having read stories of men conquering Mount Everest and rowing across the Atlantic, I dreamed of doing something really adventurous. However, I believed that to be a successful adventurer you had to be a man. Years later I was to disprove this belief by becoming the first British woman to walk to the Magnetic North Pole.
In 1995 I was reading a newspaper in the garden, when I spotted a feature which said: "WANTEND ten novice arctic explorers"—to take part in an expedition to walk 350 miles to the Magnetic North Pole.
I recognized immediately that this was the opportunity I had been waiting for. The ad went on to describe the qualities that the organizers were looking for: the ability to work in a team, and the ability to raise £15, 000. I was prepared to do this because I wanted to know if I could survive in the Arctic. There was no reason to delay so I sent off for more details. When the brochure arrived, the most significant thing that hit me were the words on the front page. Are you man enough for the Ultimate Challenge?
Immediately my mind raced back to those books I had read all those years ago as a child, about all those men who had been successful adventurers. Only men could be successful adventurers. I was angry. Suddenly that became all the motivation I needed to follow up on this opportunity. "I'll show them," I thought to myself. "If they think only men can do this, I am going to prove them wrong."
