The polar realms are inaccessible places to this day, but in Scotts time it must have been like visiting another planet. He was a pioneer who translated a dream into reality.

Being a Polar explorer gives you a lot of time to think, to question your desire to continue. But Antony Jinman never does. The question was answered at 22, when a snowboarding accident split a vertebra which left him nearly paralysed. He vowed never to leave something unexplored.

There is no set career path to becoming an explorer and theres no degree or apprenticeship. All Antony started with was the dream of exploration. So, after five years in the armed forces, Antony left to pursue this dream. He became an adventure tour guide at 23 and then an expedition leader at the age of 25, travelling extensively all over the world.

Through his years of travelling Antony became an informed and passionate conservationist, working hard to support understanding and protection of our ecosystems and biodiversity. His first trip to the Arctic was the 2007 Baffin Island Expedition for the Mitchem Trust, raising over 200,000 for vulnerable children. This was the start of a special relationship as Baffin Island has become the hub for Antonys Arctic expeditions, which have taken him to Greenland and the ultimate challenge: the geographic North Pole in 2010.

The Geographic North Pole expedition saw Antony and his two team mates ski and snow shoe (and sometimes swim) over 500 miles from Cape Discovery to the Geographic North Pole in just 51 days, collecting valuable scientific data for the University of Plymouth. Realising his boyhood dream to reach the pole at the age of 29 might seem like the end of his ambition but this is very much not the case: it is as an educator, rather than an explorer, that Antony defines himself and which compelled him to set up Education Through Expeditions.

Education Through Expeditions is a not-for-profit, community interest company that aims to bring real-time case studies to educators on a global basis. For the past three years Antony has been developing a school outreach program, visiting schools and communicating to children his passion for expeditions, hoping to inspire them in the way he has been inspired by his hero, Captain Scott. His outreach work in schools is done pro bono and he aims to carbon offset all of his projects.

Antony is now embarking on his greatest project to date. He will be leading the International Scott Centenary Expedition to Antarctica in January 2012 to visit the last tent site of Scott and his Polar Party and hold a commemoration service. He will encounter a challenging environment and lead a team from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages.

Antony has received medals from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and his adventures have been endorsed by the Royal Geographical Society. In 2010 he was the UKs sole representative at the International Polar Year Teachers Conference in Oslo.

As a popular and experienced public speaker, Antony has worked with True North, the National Geographic stores and the University of Oxford. His speeches are peppered with anecdotes from his time in the harshest environment on Earth as well as offering proven advice and inspiring messages on leadership, commitment and the motivation of teams.

Health, Overcoming Adversity, Europe, Inspiring, Inspirational, Personal Growth, Motivational,