Adventurer who seizes and enjoys every second of life

As the first speaker at the YIBC, she certainly grabbed the audience’s attention with stunning tales of solo feats of endurance. She’s best described as a serial adventurer.

As far as we know, she’s the only person to have completed a solo, 20,000 mile run around the world, and she’s also polished off 27 marathons in 27 days. That’s to say nothing of twice completing a 150-mile race across the Sahara, and riding more than 3,000 miles on horseback across South America.

She had stirring tales of encounters with bears and wolves in remote parts of Russia, where coffee made with sludgy water was “like Starbucks” and her eyelashes froze shut.

Ms Swale Pope also gave interviews on Russian television where she “didn’t understand the question or the answer”.

She said: “I rarely stayed with people (in Russia) because I didn’t want to use up their scarce resources.

“There is no such thing as an ordinary person, or an ordinary minute or second.

“You must seize the day, because the day is a celebration. Thoughts of my family kept me going; they were with me every day in spirit.”

VERDICT: 7/10: Phew! A breathless account of a remarkable life. She’s a woman of great spirit and indomitable courage. It’s a shame she didn’t have more time to tell her story, because it was worth telling.

Sadly, the last section of the presentation seemed a little rushed. However, the pace of the delivery seemed in keeping with the life it described.