In this episode, we’re joined by the fearless Ann Whatmore, an adventurer who proves that asthma doesn’t have to set limits on what you can achieve. Ann has faced numerous health challenges, but rather than letting them hold her back, she’s embraced adventure in a big way.
In May 2024, she cycled over 3,000km across the UK on her recumbent e-trike, “Bob,” completing a solo journey from Land’s End to Orkney before speaking at Yestival.
This was no easy feat – Ann had only a sixth of her lung function available and had to rely on determination, resourcefulness, and a supportive community to make the journey possible. In this episode, Ann shares how she turned her dream into reality, navigating the ups and downs of planning such a massive adventure. She talks about the emotional and physical struggles of living with asthma, how she managed her condition on the road, and the lessons she learned along the way.
Whether you’re living with a chronic condition, longing for adventure, or simply looking for inspiration to push through your own barriers, Ann’s story is one you won’t want to miss.
Tune in to hear how Ann turned her “limitations” into an opportunity for growth and exploration, proving that the only true limits are the ones we place on ourselves.
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Show notes
• Who is Ann
• Having numerous health issues
• Being based near the Jurassic Coast, UK
• Living by the sea
• Not being able to explore the landscape as much as she would like
• Deciding to get a 3 wheeled e-trike (called Bob)
• Wanting to say yes to adventure
• Getting asthma problems after the age of 18
• Being able to manage her condition at 19
• Her early years growing up, being very sporty and outdoorsy
• Having horses and enjoying riding
• Getting covid on 21st march 2020 and how it impacted on her lung function
• Not being able to walk up stairs
• Being on high dose steroids and inhalers
• The mental challenges of dealing with health issues
• Grieving for the person she was
• Finding out her lungs have been damaged and developing breathing pattern disorders
• Joining adventure book clubs and listening to podcasts
• Bringing the adventures to her
• Finding positivity in other people adventures
• Looking for glimmers of hope
• Say Yes More Tribe (https://sayyesmore.com/)
• Yestival – Dave Cornwaithe (https://davecornthwaite.com/)
• Losing her balance and co-ordination ability
• Finding out about trikes
• Free trike rehabilitation (https://www.freetrike.co.uk/process) in Exeter
• Finding ways to fund her trike
• The price to have independence outside
• Bike to Work Scheme (UK) (https://www.bike2workscheme.co.uk/)
• Having a bike fit check
• Going for short, local rides on flat ground
• Finding a little route and going out with her partner to gain confidence
• The plan for the adventure
• Taking a year to plan and how the journey changed
• BOOK: Britain Best Bike Ride: The ultimate thousand-mile cycling adventure from Land’s End to John o’ Groats – Hannah Reynolds & John Walsh (https://amzn.to/4d2XtPC)
• Planning to cycle from Lands End to John O’Groats
• Wanting to see Skara Brae (https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/skara-brae/overview/) in the Orkneys
• Making herself accountability and standing up on stage at Yestival to announce her challenge
• Deciding to finish the challenge at Yestival (https://sayyesmore.com/tickets)
• Committing to the 2,000 mile adventure!
• Figuring out how to charge her bike battery
• Not being able to wild camp and always needing to find a plug each day
• The reality of the challenge, compared to what she expected
• Having a supportive and encouraging partner
• Being able to enjoy it more
• Loving the highlands
• How her perception changed of what she could do
• Dealing with the hills…
• The feelings of ‘awe’
• Focusing on the next goal, and breaking down the challenge
• The kindness of strangers…
[Music] hello and welcome to the three-time award-winning Tough Girl podcast which is all about motivating and inspiring you while increasing the amount of female role models in the media i’m your host Sarah Williams if you love adventure challenge and hearing from women who share their stories and provide top tips and advice to help you take on your own personal challenges make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out new episodes go live every Tuesday at 7:00 a.m uk time with bonus episodes happening on a Thursday you can support the Tough Girl mission by signing up as a patron by visiting patreon pt reo n.com/toughgirl podcast keep listening until the very end as I share more information about what’s going on with me with Tough Girl Challenges give shoutouts and recommend other Toughgirl podcast episodes more information can be found at [Music] toughgirlchallenges.com i’m Anne Watmore i’m sort of a mature lady i have coorbidities and lung function problems and breathing pattern disorder and a larynx dysfunction so I have plenty of uh issues healthwise i based in fantastic part of herex in UK down near the Jurassic coast i’m at CF Castle in Dorset i have sea and wonderful things near me and fantastic landscape to explore the only thing is I haven’t been able to really get out there and explore it with my health conditions then I’ve decided to get a uh after many years of being stuck indoors I decided to get a three-wheel trike who I named Bob and decided to get outside and say yes to adventure oh I love that say yes to adventure and um I’d love to just ask you just a couple of quick questions you said you know about your sort of health issues and health conditions is that something that you’ve grown up with You know so when you were a child is this something that you had to deal with then No I didn’t get uh asthma problems until I was over 18 in my sort of once I had grown up and left home i got a really bad chest infection and it seemed after then when I was sort of 19 that I had asthma but it was well controlled and and not severe it was easy to I still could do my passion with my horses and I had dogs and things so nothing seemed to be really a trigger for it so it wasn’t till much sort of later in life that it’s become such a massive issue so were you quite sort of sporty and outdoorsy when you were growing up I was very sporty and outdoorsy um I loved my my mom used to have to sort of shout from the back door cuz I’d be off exploring the heath where I grew up in Paul i’d be off exploring the Heathland with mates making dens not coming home till really late and uh I loved sports you know all sort of the usual things that you did at school and I I enjoyed sort of football and running and especially crossc country running and then I had horses and enjoyed sort of riding um and had a few of my own and used to ride other people’s as well i couldn’t get enough of being on a horse my grandfather had had sharing a racehorse and we always went to the races so I decided at 13 I’d go off and learn to be how to be a jockey and work at a racing yard and for my final years at school I only was at school for a couple of days and spent the rest of the time at the racing yard cuz that’s was where where my home and my passion was and it was like that until I got married at 18 with your health conditions was it like a gradual change over time or was there like sort of a point in your life when suddenly it was just like oh god I just can’t do the things that I used to be able to do so it was almost like a bit of a shock to the to the system what happened was I got COVID on the very first day of the very first lockdown on 23rd of March 2020 and that after that my lung function was never the same again i didn’t realize I was living in a bungalow and it wasn’t until I went to try to go to the gym which was up three flights of stairs my local uh place where I had my PT personal trainer i was training to do an ice mile swim and also I wanted to go off sailing i used to sail as well and I wanted to had a a thing that I wanted to sail my one pound boat around the UK but once I started trying to get up the stairs there was just no way I could i just ran out of breath i was gasping within five steps and I knew then that something was severely wrong i couldn’t walk down to my shop i couldn’t go up the stairs in my house i’d have asthma attack after asthma attack constantly calling out the um ambulance service various visits to A&E and suddenly found myself on high doses of steroids and on the highest level of inhalers you could take and nothing was abating it oh god an just sounds so frustrating and just um so mentally so difficult to to handle yeah I mean I I suffer severely with mental health problems as well i became quite um you know suicidal thoughts and ideation and I had to grieve for the person I was it wasn’t until after I had various year of hold testings and MRIs and lung function tests um that they found out and uh scans that my lungs were damaged and I have uh six of my lung function capacity left to cope with severe asthma I had developed breathing pattern disorders and my larynx got a intermittent larynx obstruction so that can close up at any point and literally cut the air off so whereas I before didn’t even think about how to breathe all of a sudden it became my sort of every waking moment and even at night was just trying to be able to breathe in and out everything that I took for granted had suddenly gone overnight so when did things change for you How did things change for you Well I’d um got a brilliant health team i can’t fault the care I’ve had from Southampton Hospital and the Royal Brmpton in London but also the adventure community the Say Yes More tribe just unbelievable in support kindness and you know didn’t think you were mad or weird for having these you know enormous and audacious extreme ideas of trying to get outside even though you couldn’t i also was you know in adventure book clubs and listen to podcasts just to try and keep that if I couldn’t get out to adventures then I could bring the adventures to me and that helped a great deal as well oh do you know I love that i absolutely love that just being you know trying to bring the adventures to you yeah i mean I I just devoured every book I could get my hands on of everyone else’s adventures you know try to remain or or find positivity in other people’s maybe adventures and hardships they’d gone through and just really looked for any sort of glimmers of hope really i had to find a hook of positivity just to hold tight and not slip any further down the dark black hole I seem to find myself in well you’ve definitely found the light with the Say Yes More tribe they are an incredible group like I went to their yes um gosh it must have been quite a few years ago now but Dave Pay he’s got like a proper base now which is amazing and I know so many people who are a member of who a member of that community and it is just brimming with positivity and it’s exactly like you say like you know you can have these which to many other people might seem weird or wacky or just ridiculous ideas of things that you want to do but I know that if you said to somebody I want to do X Y and Zed the people would just be like that’s a fantastic idea have you thought about this or yes you could do it in this way or yes actually I know someone who can you know point you in that right direction so let’s hear about your big dream your errike your trike called Bob where where did this come from Well I’d had in my youth um some problems and I’d had a few TAs and and mild strokes so I’ve lost my ability to be um balanced and coordinated a bit so I couldn’t ride an ordinary bike and so I’d seen Dave do various Dave Convo do various challenges on various forms of self-propelled and one of them was a trike and I thought well maybe I can have a go so I got in touch with a they’re called free trike rehabilitation down in exat i went and sat and tried various different three-wheel trikes to have a go to see which one would suit me best i’ll never forget it i mean I just literally was crying with laughter because you’re so low to the ground and you’re bombing along on this thing and it it was just the first time that you didn’t have to rely on anybody sort of giving you an arm of support or dropping you off at a bench to go and look at the outside you were actually in it by yourself you know and self-propelled and okay I have to have the support of a motor but it means all of a sudden now I’m out there you know I choose where to go i can choose what path to take i’m not reliant on anyone else and it it was just the most exhilarating joyful experience of my life and then it was a matter of finding ways to be able to fund one cuz they weren’t cheap and you can get secondhand ones and things but I then came up with this idea for my challenge and it was like well okay I need to have one maybe that’s going to be specially or or formatted to be able to cope with the sort of type of riding I want to do so how much are we talking here Can you ballpark it for us Cuz I’m I’m literally like is it a grand five grand 10 grand Like 20 My Bob My Bob cost me u just under £9,000 whoa price a car but the price for me to have independence outside it’s not something that’s there just for 5 minutes he’s there for every adventure or every trip or every time I want to get out I can so what price do you put on your freedom you know to be able to go on bike rides with friends and not be you know sat at home reading about them or watching their social feed posts but you’re actually in there amongst them you know and in joining in and you can’t put a price on that for me you know it I had to do it i did it through um the bike to work scheme so Oh brilliant i didn’t even realize that that would cover trikes yes it does i mean it was just the most brilliant way to have you know I couldn’t have afforded it any other way i did sell my car and and things and and uh sort of put money aside to know that I could cope with the repayments but yeah I’ve done it on a cycle to work scheme through green commute and it’s just brilliant it’s just it’s made it more manageable i’ve decided to pay it over two years and now I’ve got my freedom those are the you know the two words that I’ve written down here were independence and freedom and like you said that’s that’s life-changing for you absolutely lifechanging and I suppose also as well you know going out because I didn’t even realize I well actually I suppose it’s almost like a bikes and cars that they’ll be all different shapes and sizes and is a question of finding out hold on which is the trike which is going to be the right fit for you your body and how it’s going to you know work best for you and finding that must have just been oh this me just so emotional like and I mean yeah into tears the day I went to pick him pick him up and have a bike bit check and then I had a trial out with Tom who who runs the rehabilitation you know free trike and uh it I just was crying i just burst into tears and even thinking about it now you know I get quite emotional but um it was just such a massive moment what was the journey and what was the progression like were you confident straight away like right come on let’s load it up let’s get out there how did the trike journey sort of evolve Like and were your fitness were were you able to ride for a long time or was it like something like actually I can only do this for 5 minutes and then build this up over time What did that look like Yeah no I went for very short local rides on flat ground trying to find mind you trying to find that in sort of Pervic Hills was fun but I I found a a regular little route that was only an hour and I first went out with my partner so he accompanied me on on his trike because I hadn’t cycled really at all ever and not since I was you know a small child and so it was the fear of being that low to the ground would buses see me Cuz I have to go on a main road to get uh for a short distance before I can get it into the countryside and it’s you know a tourist area and quite heavy with traffic so I had fears like that but once I sat in it I felt so safe and stable and I had just a you know Christmas tree arrangement of lights on the back all flashing like mad and streamers that um I didn’t then I felt quite confident but I I hadn’t before I went off on my trip the furthest I’d gone was 22 km that’s as far as I I’d ever done in in any trip or um ride so let’s talk about this trip let’s talk about the journey what was the plan and how long were you planning for before you set off I planned for a year and it sort of changed in that year cuz originally it was just going to be I’m going to ride from L’s End to Jonats although that itself was a revision cuz I originally and I still would love to ride the coast of Norway and then do a nice mile swim but as my family and friends pointed out let’s start small and before you you know do something extreme as that seems as I’d only gone 22 km so I said “Right I’m just going to do L’s end to John Gross.” So I bought this book called Britain’s Best Bike Ride by uh John Walsh and Hannah Reynolds and that became my Bible and Guide and but then in the planning of it it was um how am I going to get my bike you know to the start So I thought well I might as well cycled there so I added on the distance of cycling from K to L’s End and uh I was just going to finish in Jonah Gros and then I thought well I’ve always wanted to go and see Scar Bray i’d studied it at college and uni so I thought I’m going to have to do the Orcnes cuz it seems silly to just get that close to the Orcnees and not actually see something you’ve you know dreamed about for so long so I put in Orcnes and I thought well maybe I could go to the Monorus point and do Shetland and I went to then make myself accountable so I stood up on stage at a Yes which is a say yes more adventure festival and announced to all the attendees that I was going to do this on my trike and gave a talk so then it was like I’m going to have to do this now it’s not just And then I found out that the uh Say Yes More Festival was going to be happening 19 days after I got to Jona Gros so I thought well actually I might as well cycle all the way down and go to the festival at the same time which is what I did i ended up finishing off at Sees Mo so the whole trip became just about 2,000 miles in the end it was sort of like okay this is this is going to happen but there was an awful lot of planning and issues i had to really think about uh the biggest problem was where and how to charge my bike so how did you figure that out Well I sort of made the mistake and I learned on the way of uh cuz I actually ran out of battery one day up up this severe hill in Delverton in uh uh Devonshire Hills and I suddenly found my because I hadn’t pushed me or the bike to that limit to that point i build up very slowly and my first few days on the trip were very slow but I then soon learned that uh I had a maximum range and a maximum altitude that I could do combined in a day and then it was a matter of finding campsites in that limit that I could then go and plug into as a you know as a a hookup with them a tent or try and find every sort of once a week go to maybe uh an Airbnb or a a hotel to try and get washed and kit and do a full sort of repack and recharge so it yeah the planning and and sort of pre-booking uh limited me that I couldn’t wild camp i had to always find a plug but that was a small sort of price to pay to still actually be out there doing it you’ve obviously read a lot of books and heard a lot of talks and been involved in in adventure and um how was the reality for you of going on this challenge Was it what you expected I think I put you know you spend so long or I had spent so long planning it and I even got a massive map on my office room that’s the full height of the the room it takes up whole wall and it was the whole of UK and I I individually plotted each day’s section and route and uh it wasn’t until you stood back and looked and you thought “Oh my god.” But there’s one thing planning it and getting yourself sort of soaked up in the planning and the and the preparation but I remember after my first day which was 50 km which was twice the distance I’d ever done i remember just sort of bursting into tears because it’s like this is actually actually happening you know I’ve actually got to do this and there was fear of like what on earth am I doing Who am I to be with you know taking a big bag of drugs with me Who am I to to be quite an overweight middle-aged woman going off on this mad adventure you know But it became the most most joyous and uplifting sort of experience really when did that change for you When did you start thinking like yes I’m an Karen you know I’m doing this i am an adventurer i am taking on this challenge like I can do that did there become a point where your your self-confidence grew to that level It’s weird cuz part of me still looks back now you know I finished it in June and I I I still feel it happened to someone else but my actual confidence on the trip I suppose once I’d got past Bristol where my children lived I’ so I’d gone down from Cor down to the bottom to L’s End and then cycled all the way back up through the Cornish Hills which I’d read about and filled me with absolute terror and dread and I’d had the the terrible day of running out of battery and running out of signal and and feeling like there’s nobody around here that can support except for yourself who’s going to get out you know going to get you out of this mess but I did luckily have an amazing partner who appeared out of the blue at 5:00 in the morning to check I was all right that day after I’d had such a disastrous day their support and their encouragement it was like oh no actually you know you can take a breath and enjoy it more and not just be terrified of thinking I’ve got to get to the next charge point i’ve got to get to my my destination and actually sit back and enjoy it and I I think for me the the most wonderful and epic part was the highlands from Perth to Braar and then on to Grant Tan on Spay i mean that just completely changed my perception of what I could do tell us more about that was that just you know for for the hills or like how did you manage that and were you okay getting up and down the hills I did the Carwell pass at Glenshi which is the highest mountain pass in Britain and what seemed worse than that though is the second one the second highest which is the Lea Aimmore i mean when you go to start that it’s just a a wall of asphalt in front of you it it just rears up vertically straight there’s no gentle start to it it’s just full pelt head on and I I I kept thinking I’m not going to be able to do this and the only way I managed to convince myself was just to concentrate on getting from one snow pole to the next snow pole and just like focus i’m just going to keep going and get to the next uh snow pole and before I knew it I’d got to the top and then you had this amazing sixmile descent you just like going all the way down and uh looking at feeling so small in such a vast amazing landscape it just made you feel very humble and I just kept thinking “Wow you know oh my gosh wow look at me i’m here and I’m in mountains.” And a year or so ago I was you know struggling to get out of bed and here I am going up mountains by myself it was just gobsmacking really yeah it it sounds like um oh who I was speaking to somebody h the names escaped me but they talked about the feelings of awe like you know when you are in like sort of these like mountainous environments or you’re outside in nature doing something like what you’re doing where you’re just like this is incredible and actually that’s a really good tactic that you shared as well like just focusing on the next snow pole like really breaking down the challenge into those small manageable chunks and were there other tips and tricks maybe that you were using to you know to maintain your positivity you know to make sure that you did keep going especially after tough days or tough moments or tough sections when maybe that doubt was creeping in you know what other things were you doing Well my blessing my friends had written on slips of paper unbeknown to me and put into like a large matchbox these uh words for positivity and when you were feeling down so I remember I got to Avimmore and it has raining constantly for a week my tent was wet i was wet i was so cold the campsite was in a hollow of of a dip and it it just felt even colder than it than it actually was because it was 3° at the time i just opened up this matchbox and I just burst into tears and just read all these you know amazing comments from people of you got this you know you can kick its ass you can do this an and and that helped amazingly also just the kindness of strangers when you thought you were at your lowest you know someone would see you or spot you and offer you a cup of tea or you know a meal there were so many things that sort of gave you that humbled you and made you feel quite small at times but just the generosity of people they wanted you to succeed there was nobody there that I came across that you know or was negative and saying “What on earth are you doing?” Everyone was like “Wow.” Once they you’d explain to them what you were trying to do but just the really positive how was the Shhatlands or the little island that you wanted It wasn’t was it the Shhatlands that you wanted to visit What was it called I wanted to visit the Shetlands but actually this is where another thing you know you’re you’re in the middle of a trip and you feel like oh god I’m going to be a failure because I couldn’t get the charge points and the timings for the ferry to link with the time of that I’d set aside to do that part of the challenge so instead of giving myself any more stress I actually took time to enjoy and stop instead of just going from one place to the next place each day which it had been up until that point when I got to the Orcnes I stopped for four or five days and then when I came back I stopped at the top of the Highlands for another 4 days and just took in what I was doing resort sorted the bike found a fantastic little bike shop in Thzo and they overhauled my bike for me and took stock of where I was and wanted to sit back and soak some of it up i didn’t want it to rush in sort of a blur of just to the next point to the next point and it was lovely to see some of the heritage and and the environment and the beauty that’s in that landscape and just sit and be with it cuz how long were you on the road for In total it was 50 days 50 days it’s a long time it’s a really long time i think one of the things I loved is um it’s almost full circle especially you know with this with the say yes more and starting you know by announcing on stage what you’re going to do and then finishing off the challenge at what was that that like Did that did that Oh my gosh yeah tell tell us about that tell us about that oh the the reception I got cuz I I um I finished on the day that it it was starting so I arrived at 2:00 in the afternoon not thinking that there’d be really anybody much there you know that I would sort of sneak in and there I found sort of Dave Cornweight at the U end of the road that I turned round down to approach the the site he was there saying “You’ve got this and filming me.” And as I went around the you could hear this cheering and as I got down the drive and the and the entrance to the site at Big Sky Hideways it was just phenomenal that there were so many of people who I’d been you know following and in awe of and watch them to undertake challenges they were all there shouting cheering to to greet me and come in uh as I turned down the path to the Big Sky Hideway it was just phenomenal you know the the cheering and the and the shouting from peers and people that I’d watched and followed they were all there there was a large such a large group to welcome me i just burst into tears and just couldn’t stop shaking it was it was just the most phenomenal welcome that you could ever get and so welld deserved as well like that’s the thing when you find your people your community your tribe the people who who understand you and you you know and and can really relate to what it is that you want to do and what you want to achieve like there is going to be cheers there is going to be positivity there is going to be that support and if you’re not and especially for people listening you know if you’re not getting that at the moment there’s nothing wrong with you you just haven’t found the right people to surround yourself with that’s so true how was the adjustment back to normal life Like you know you’ve obviously you probably read about you know Adventure Blues but you just had this 50-day incredible experience throughout the UK just immersing yourself in the outdoors you living with this freedom and this independence and doing you know what you want to do on your errike and then back to normality did you adjust okay or was that a bit of a shock Bit of a shock really i mean I finished at the festival and I managed to ek out the high by being at the festival for you know the Friday Saturday Sunday and I remember then it felt weird packing up the trike and putting it in my partner’s car to drive home because it was like oh I’m not cycling today you know and by Tuesday I was back at work and that felt after having 50 days away where you’re just alone with your own thoughts and reliant on yourself and you know learning to camp and put doing all those sort of fun things of trying to cook and feed for yourself while on the road and the challenges that can bring all of a sudden you’re back at work and I got in touch with my mental health team that had been so supportive to me in the dark times before and you know during coping with my illness so I got back in touch and said look you know I’m well aware that these that you can have a dip and I’m struggling so I had a lot of onetoone support and still do because it’s a back to finding a way and I I hadn’t been on the trike i I came back and I put it away and I hadn’t been on the trike until just last weekend and I got him back out again and thought no this is you know you’ve got to pull yourself back out of this again and you’ve you’ve got to start again and so hence I’ve set myself another challenge fantastic what’s the next challenge The next challenge is really audacious i’ve decided to sign up and I’ve registered and signed up uh paid my entry to do Chase the Sun so that’s 205 miles on a bike on one day so going from the uh aisle of Shepy across to finish at Western Super Mayor by trying to beat the sunset i don’t think I’m going to beat the sunset but I definitely finish the the course that’s my plan but uh it means I’ve got to now start a severe course of getting fit and training and getting on my bike more again and pedaling away and trying to get fit for this audacious challenge but you you will get fit you know you’ve got a purpose you get to train you get to go outdoors you get to go on your on your tri get to take on this epic chase the sun the sun ride and I also just want to say you know thank you so much for sharing more about actually especially with finishing the adventure but knowing actually you know I might experience a dip now i need to make sure that I’m supported and reaching out to your to your healthare professionals to get that onetoone support i think that’s so powerful because it is it is like a known phenomenon like the the adventure the adventure blues and the other thing I’d say is one of the uh one of the the best things to do to help with the adventure blues is actually to book the next challenge book the ne next adventure have something to look forward to but but before we move on I say just want to reflect back on your you know on your journey throughout the UK you know looking back you know did it change you and how did it change you You know what did you learn most from that experience That I could do um and achieve far more as long as you’re open to be vulnerable and ask for help you know like um there was a section near Perth where there was some road works and it completely blocked the path that I wanted to be able to go down and before I knew it the the road works chaps all came round and uh dropped what they were doing and picked up my trike and escorted me and my trike carried it across all the road works to the other side so I could pick up the the trail again and I would never have dreamed of asking that before i would have gone “Oh god no.” You know what do I do I would have had a panic attack or stood there thinking “Oh that’s it.” You know I can’t get for further forward but the I think the biggest lesson I learned was that it’s all right to be vulnerable to ask before this bold gregarious sort of I can do it all you know very independent full of grit and determination and just get on with it and just push on through and and actually the softer side of me was was something I learned that uh actually if you embrace that you can get actually far more out of things and and further along in your trip than you actually thought and get far more connectivity and and sort of happenings with people connections you know and learn more about their stories and take some time yeah you were fundraising as well for a charity do you want to share more about your fundraising who who you were raising money for Yeah I was raising for Asthma and Lung UK you know they’re an organization which is like a one-stop shop for advice and support and they’ve been invaluable to me especially with my rare e sonophilic asthma you know there’s only 4% out of 5.4 million who have severe asthma and there’s only 14,000 people sort of approximately that are on biological therapy and treatment like me that inject every 8 weeks so I felt very passionate that you know there’s one in four people in this country that have lung condition or know of someone that have a lung condition we all should have the right to breathe clean air but it’s a right that a lot of us don’t have and I wanted to raise money for them to be able to you know keep offering support and and a counseling and information point for everybody that has a lung condition fantastic no that’s great i’ll make sure that I put all of the links in the show notes and I know you you do have another passion as well which at this time of year I don’t know how you do it but do you just want to share what your other passion is and what you get up to at 6:00 a.m in the morning in most weathers or in all weathers I should say yeah although I haven’t for the I’m recovering from a chest infection so it’s put it on hold a bit but I seas swim i’m one of those mad sort of nutters that goes in the sea i started it way before uh COVID and I was doing it for years train wanting to train to do an ice mile so that’s where you swim in 5° or less temperature uh for a mile and I just found it brilliant that 5:30 every morning no matter what time of year to just go out and swim a kilometer was just the most uplifting thing and it it really helped with stress of work and mindset i found it hard to continue with the severe asthma i have to take longer to I climatize when I get into the cold now i have to do it much more slowly and much more measured and I don’t spend so long and don’t do as far as I used to but I I still get out there and enjoy it and still get a thrill from being in the water that’s okay like that’s all you know you’re still getting out there and making it work for you and your body which is so powerful and is the ice mile swim is that is that still a dream or or or what’s happening there I think it’s still a dream whether it’s achievable I’d have to push i mean if I start training from sort of now maybe in 2 years I could get to the point where I could do a kilometer but I’m always at risk of getting either a cold or a chest infection that sort of sets you back and it’s then very hard which I think quite a few people will find that but if you have a knock back it’s really hard to keep focus on your goal it’s easy to get disillusioned and disenchanted and then think “Oh this is never going to happen.” It’s really hard but that’s where I rely on friends and and family that sort of pick you up and support you and say “No you got this.” You might just have to take a sideways approach or you know it might take you a bit longer but if you really want something by looking differently at something and finding other solutions for it you can still achieve quite quite amazing things and and are you are you active on social media Oh now you see this is where I don’t know how people do it i had all these big ideas that I’d do this trip i bought a drone and I bought a vlogging camera part of my kit and I took it all with me and I didn’t end up using it because it it just took all effort just to have the energy to put a tent up and cycle each day i don’t know how these influences go you know put the camera down cycle walk forward pick it up put it down walk you know I thought good god I was struggling enough just to think finding something to eat each day and pitch a tent and learn you know cope with all the the joys of camping which I’d never done before i do have social media and that’s one of my things that doing this challenge this year with the chasing the sun is that I’m my challenge to myself is that I’m going to be much more show my journey on social media share it with all the ups and downs you know not just the great parts but all the having to get out in the wind and rain and at stup trying to fit it round a full-time job to be fair like what you’re saying is so true like sharing the journey especially on social media it’s a whole other ball game but I think people think it’s so easy i mean you see this and people look immaculate don’t they And they’re stood there in their sort of shiny gear and and look at me and I’m out here doing this and I’m the reality of it i’ve sort of been draggled cold wet you know haven’t showered for a week you know you sort of uh your second skin has become the clothes you’re in and uh you just think how on earth do I you know you’re just thinking where’s the where’s the nearest sort of petrol station or open because that was another thing that opened my eyes is you know how much in co we lost in the little small communities of little village shops and I had this idea that I’d turn up at some nice quaint tea rooms and be able to tea and cake and I was going to do my cake of the day and things like that and there was just nowhere open you were going through villages that were boarded up you know pubs were gone community sort of centers or areas were gone and it just was such an eyeopener yeah how social media types sort of can do it and look so so polished is yes like a holy grail I think well I mean I would say I wouldn’t worry about being polished but what’s always worked really well for me and this is from a gentleman called Gary Veaynerchuk based in New York and he said something along the lines of document don’t create it’s like don’t create social media content like literally just document what you’re doing so even if that’s you you know on the try even in a small village because yeah I I’ve have me like “Oh my god I’m so excited can’t wait to get this village and get some resupply and go in the shop and then it’s closed.” But you can share that disappointment with people and and you know take photos of those buildings or you know take a photo of the cake that you’re eating and you know do the hashtag cake of the day and I I think if you do well for me like document don’t create it’s almost like this is just what I’m doing this is how how I’m doing it this is me tired hungry this is me feeling energized this is me showing up or turning up but but I think the the more you’ll do it you’ll you’ll find your style and your vibe and and how much you actually want to want to share and and you know which bits you do want to include which bits you don’t include and it’ll just um yeah it’ll you’ll figure it out but where would you where are you most active on social media Where how can people follow along with your next adventure Do you know Chase the Sunide So um I have got wondering what more which is my sort of sort of little name i have got um that on Instagram which is really the main one that I I do but I also and what more that’s the one I use mainly at the most but I will be putting it on chase the sun on wandering what more and also updating my website and my blog cuz that’s been dormant for for 6 months and it’s time now to pick it up and go again especially like sort of showing people that okay I have to inject my treatment every eight weeks so how do you fit Yeah you know hoping uh with uh getting fit and training program in with also the difficulties of taking a treatment every 8 weeks that leaves you my I’m not good for one week the first week after injection and I’m not so good for the last two weeks so I have this little small window where I’m great but um it it’s going to be fitting that in and timing that and how will that I haven’t worked it out yet but how does my treatments coincide with uh this year’s challenge last year it fitted in nicely but this year is going to be maybe a bit different yeah I think that’s so interesting to share because there’ll be other people listening who are wanting to understand well actually when you do feel awful after your treatment or you actually you know you can’t train for the final two weeks the first two weeks like how do you manage that like how do you you know document like okay look I know I’m going to feel bad during this week but actually I know that I can do x y and zed or actually I know I just have to take it as like a rest week but instead I focus on doing you know the the social media or the writing or that becomes a logistics week or a planning week i think people will be so interested in that and in you know you figuring out how to make adventure and training work for you and your body and to fit it all in i think sharing that is so so powerful and you know honestly thank you so much for for sharing your story with us and I’d love for you to to have the last words you know I’d love for you to share your advice and top tips for other women who are thinking well look I’m I’m not a typical type of adventurer and I do have a certain number of health conditions but I still want to to be immersed in the outdoors and spend more time in the outdoors apart from just do it what advice would you like to share And you can take that in any direction you’d like i think the the biggest thing is to find your community find your tribe you know there are quite a lot out there like uh Wild Women and you know say yes more loads of different communities out there but also you know if there isn’t make one put a call out and say “Look I suffer with this and this you know I’m not going to be able to go charging around up you know massive hills or mountains but I can walk on the flat maybe around you know and I have to stop every now and then but find community and support don’t be afraid to be vulnerable to ask for help that was my hardest lesson to learn i was always yes I can do yes I can do or you know and then I got into no I can’t and that’s no point in trying whereas actually if I once I started asking people for you know advice on kit and advice on how to go about things you know I didn’t even know how to take change a tire but I found amazing people you know in the community of say yes more a chap called John Wright he helped me incredibly and and Glenn Pilkinson helped me with you know selecting kit and giving advice and Tom Napper and there were just so many people out there that actually once you start saying I’d like to have the a go at this that will actually support you and I think that’s the the biggest thing is you you can still say yes to adventure but you need support you know it it’s not about going off and being uh although I went solo but I was carried behind with such an amazing support crew of people that would WhatsApp me pick me up when I was low know that they were following my little tracker uh were just always there for me you know and I had an amazing partner and family that I knew that if if the she the fan that they’d be there and step in for me if it all went tits up it was it that I wasn’t alone and there was always someone I could ask and I think that’s the biggest important thing find your tribe find your tribe absolutely and I feel as though I’ve got to say it but like you know say yes more and but you know thank you so much for sharing your story with us like so incredibly inspiring and I know that the you know women and men listening will hopefully it will have ignited a spark and it will have got people thinking and thinking okay an’s gone and done this what can I do not as a not as a comparison but as like a an inspiration like what are my passions what are my interests how can I adventure make adventure work for for me and my body and the type of challenges that I enjoy but Ann honestly best of luck with your next challenge undertake that training get out there get after it chase the chase the sun and thank you for just being such an inspiration it’s been amazing to chat to you thank you so much thank you [Music] Sarah hey hey hey tribe how are you all doing I hope you’re keeping super well it’s Sarah the host of the Tough Girl Podcast the founder of Tough Girl Challenges just checking in with you all just giving you a little mini update of future episodes and also somebody left a review for the Tough Girl Podcast i’m just going to read it out this was left on the 30th of March 2025 by India BB Bird five stars thank you so much love this positive empowering amazingly inspiring podcast really important to hear these stories firsthand from these incredible women doing incredible things as a girl you can be told a hundred times you can do anything and it doesn’t make the same impact as listening to women who really have done anything and to be able to look up to them thank you thank you India Phoebe Bird absolutely appreciate you taking the time out to leave a review on iTunes it just encourages more people to think you know I’m going to give the Tough Girl Podcast a listen you know why not They’ve got a couple of hundred episodes let’s listen to it and you know all those words that you’ve used positive empowering inspiring but it really does make a difference when you can listen to women especially women who are in a similar situation to you so whether they are women who are divorced women who’ve got children women who are dealing with grief whether it’s women who have the same body sha size and shape as you whether it’s women who the same age of you you know women going through parmenopause men menopause you know you think well actually that woman’s similar to me and she’s gone out and done this okay maybe I can try maybe I can give it a go so if you haven’t done so already I would love for you to leave a review but reaching 300 reviews is absolutely fantastic so thank you so much um for taking the time out it’s making me I flick back and listen yeah there’s some other reviews on here love these episodes um love this podcast always come away excuse me closest from Run Helen Lane this is from two years ago actually always come away feeling positive from listening to this podcast and being kinder to myself it washes away any of my own and other people’s negative comments from my head listening to these women’s incredible journeys and their profound powerful emotional experiences help me find purpose and reflect upon my own life and give strength keeping a positive mindset through difficult times and set my own many challenges sarah the interviewer’s positive inspirational voice pops into my head you can do this you are capable you can handle what life throws at you sometimes when I do little challenges which is so motivating excellent early seasons especially Rosie Spale Pokees episode and just to re just to reiterate that I love the fact that my voice is popping up in your head and I want this to happen for all of you like you can do this you are capable you can handle what life throws at you can do hard things I believe in you oh my god I’m loving this so um yeah it really especially like if I’m having um I’m not positive all the time by the way but I do have days where you know I’m sat in my bedroom I’m editing podcast or I haven’t seen or spoken to anyone apart from my folks and I sometimes think why am I doing this again Is it important And then I’ll look through some of the ratings and reviews and I think you know what this is important this is important work it’s important to share these women’s stories it’s important to get their voices out there women’s stories and voices don’t get covered as much as they should in mainstream media i do not want young girls and women growing up not having role models especially in the world of adventure and physical challenges and it really makes me think that actually I am making a difference and you the listener also making a difference by writing a review it makes a difference by telling a friend about the Tough Girl podcast it makes a difference by you doing your own adventure and personal challenge it makes a difference because you are inspiring the women and people in your circle around you so please continue to inspire please continue to go after your own adventures and challenges we have new episodes of the podcast going live every Tuesday at 7:00 a.m uk time with bonus episodes happening on a Thursday shout out for our next episode which is going to be out coming live on the 10th of June with Tanuk tanuk is an adventure presenter survivor UK star who is committed to showing diverse audiences that anyone regardless of background can experience life to the fullest so in this episode we sit down with Tanuk who’s an extraordinary adventure presenter and thrillseeking daredevil who’s breaking barriers in the world of extreme adventure you may recognize her from her recent stint on Survivor UK on BBC 1 but a journey goes far beyond reality TV she is on a mission to show that anyone regardless of background can embrace life’s greatest adventures and that the most rewarding experience often come from stepping outside of your comfort zone from sleeping on the side of a mountain walking the wing of an airplane to climbing glaciers surviving alone in the wilderness and achieving three Guinness World Records as a professional roller skater to UK’s fearlessness knows no bounds she’s dedicated to representing diverse audiences in extreme adventure TV proving that anyone can push boundaries and live life to its fullest in this inspiring conversation Tanuk shares her journey her passion for adventure and her dedication to showing the world that exploration is for everyone tune in to hear how she’s challenging perceptions and proving that adventure truly has no limits if you want to support the tough girl mission to increase the amount of female role models in the media in the world of adventure and physical challenges you can support by Patreon visiting p r e o n.com/toughgirl podcast and you can sign up as a monthly patron or an annual patron your support really does make the world of difference thank you again so much for listening everything that we have talked about today will be available in the show notes at toughgirlchallenges.com all that’s left for me to say is wherever you are whatever you are doing give it your all give it 110% get after it go for it believe in yourself because I believe in you take care lots of love and I’ll speak to you soon bye [Music]