Explorer Sir David Hempleman-Adams has become the first person to be awarded Polar Medals by two monarchs for his expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic.
And he's one of only five people this century to receive a second clasp to his Polar Medal for work in both regions.
Presented with his first Polar Medal a decade ago, he has spent over 1,500 days in the Arctic and Antarctic. His expeditions are often on foot, pulling heavy sledges, sleeping in small tents and enduring temperatures far below -30C.
He has survived falling through ice into the Arctic Ocean, breaking ribs in a fall while stranded solo in a storm on the frozen Arctic, polar bear attacks, hurricanes, frost bite down to the bone on his nose, and a fall into a crevasse.
On one night on the Arctic Ocean he recorded -55C inside his tent, a temperature that “freezes tears on your eyeballs and your fillings fall out.”
But he maintains that his first Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition to Wales was his scariest.
“I was out of my comfort zone for the first time,” he said. “We were taken to the Black Mountains by my PE teacher Mansell James. Thirty of us in a big army tent, no ground sheet, no sleeping bags just a thin blanket.
“We didn’t know how to cook the food. My first time away from home, frightened and frozen all night.
“My first time on a mountain, first time seeing the mist and the stars. I loved it. Loved the nature and the adversity.”
In 1998 Sir David, from Wiltshire, was the first person to complete the Full Explorers Grand Slam, climbing the highest summits on all seven continents and walking to both poles from the coast.
There are still only 12 people in the world who have completed it.
He is the only person to have flown a balloon to within eight miles of the North Pole, and was the first person to fly a balloon across the Atlantic in an open basket. He crossed the Atlantic a second time in the smallest balloon that has ever made the flight.
The King has awarded him the second clasp to his Polar Medal for his dedication to the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the polar regions.
His expedition and survival skills have supported scientists working in the Arctic and Antarctic, collecting data for scientific research into topics as diverse as the movement of the North Magnetic Pole, the melting of the Greenland Ice-Sheet, the palaeontology of the islands north of Russia, and the effects of climate change on the Kara and Laptev Seas north of Russia and on the sea around the Antarctic coast.
His motto is "No such thing as failure" and he is committed to inspiring young people to have a go at challenges.
“Failure is going through life saying, ‘I wish’. But if you wish you could do something, put the work in and have a go,” he said.
“You will do more than you thought you could, and if you don’t reach your ultimate goal at least you tried and learned something along the way – that’s not failure.”
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