I have always been active. My parents took me to dance lessons when I was 4, the joke being that he didn’t want any more cracks in the ceiling from me leaping around. My love of leaping around has continued to this day, with classes in ballet, contemporary, street and time in a dance company. As a family we weren’t particularly sporty, but often outside, on holiday in the country, up hills and at the beach. Once at school I did everything I possibly could. The PE department w

It all started with a pair of mittens. I spent my most impressionable years in Cumbria, though my family explored the Lake District it's wasn't until I was 11 and we had just moved significantly south to Dorset, that I walked any of the serious fells with my dad. I remember Blencathra vividly: wrapped up in a thick wool jumper, borrowed boots and a silk scarf, my dad and I joined his friends and we tackled sharp edge. The cloud was down and the rock damp which I found thril

I learnt to swim underwater first. Then I went through the standard school lessons with the stand out session being jumping into the pool with clothes on. Then got on with land based sports. But water is part of me. My Grandmother was a long-distance sea swimmer, my cousins love swimming. I have always loved water, I’ve lived by the sea since I left home at 19 and I’m the first one to paddle in a mountain stream on a walk. Water soothes and restores me. However, although I co

Tough Girl Tribe Thursday Blog #TribeThursday Every Thursday, we will be championing the writing of women from the Tough Girl Tribe; blogs, poems, thoughts and stories. The aim of Tough Girl Challenges has always been to create a platform for women's voices about the outdoors and sport and now we can hear even more of them. “You don’t see girls up here that often.” “You don’t see girls up here that often.” “Are you on your own?” “Are you sure you’ll be okay? Do you have a map