Inspiring story of Bradford Polar explorer Ann Daniels

I left school at 16, I got a normal job, I got married and I actually thought that was all I would do. I had no aspirations to do anything else. I enjoyed my job and enjoyed my life.

So, how do you go from that satisfied life to becoming a world record-breaking polar explorer? It was the birth of my triplets!”

Now an inspirational motivational speaker Ann Daniels was explaining to a university audience how over 30 years ago her life was to change forever. She would become the first woman to reach both the South and North poles. The Daily Telegraph would name her as one of the top 20 Great British Adventurers of all time and the BBC would give her the accolade of an invitation on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. She is surely the most successful explorer, and has lived one of most amazing lives of anybody, man or woman, ever to be born and raised in Bradford.

I have profiled Ann in my book, Every Day Bradford, as one of Bradford’s game-changers - women who made their mark against the odds.

As she stated in her talk, until she was a mother, Ann Daniels led an ordinary life in her home city of Bradford. Her father (an insurance salesman) and mother (a secretary) brought her up in a terrace house in Allerton with four elder brothers. She did well at comprehensive school with nine GCSEs, but her family had no expectations of her staying on for university.

Born in 1964, Ann wanted to join the police or the services, but being short-sighted ruled her out. She settled for a job in the bank. Her ambition was to get married and raise a family. Aged 21, she did marry, but having a family wasn’t so straightforward. After several years of unsuccessful fertility treatment, she tried IVF just the once and was delighted that it worked. She gave birth to triplets.

She responded enthusiastically to her new life of busy mother, but this was the moment when her life changed forever. She explained this moment in her talk: “I had children. I pretty much brought them up on my own. My marriage dissolved when they were three, but even at the beginning I had no family around. When they were 18 months, I thought I could do anything. I was shown an advert which asked for ‘ordinary women to apply to join the first all-female team to walk to the North Pole’. I’ve got all the attributes. I had never worn walking boots on my feet and I’ve never carried a rucksack, but I am an ordinary woman!”

She was amazed to be invited to a weekend of assessment then selected from 200 women for a second four-day SAS-style assessment, despite being surrounded by ‘real outdoor types’ who seemed to have the experience. She confessed to feeling ‘annihilated by them’, but she had a dream she could make it to the team. Finally, she was selected for the team, making the first relay for the North Pole and given nine months to train. With no money, she trained in the garden, amazing neighbours with her press-ups. Her parents stepped in to look after the triplets during the expedition.

In 1998 she joined a relay expedition of women sledge-hauling to the North Pole. The first team of four women (one being Ann) with two guides were tasked with crossing the toughest sections of ice, in the coldest weather, to give this record-breaking expedition the best possible start. Two years later, to celebrate the millennium, Ann and four other women made a bid to be the first British all-women’s team to walk to the South Pole. From the outset the team experienced some of the fiercest winds they’d ever encountered. The average wind speed was around 80mph. It was vital that every inch of skin was covered, as exposed flesh would freeze in minutes. In the first three days of the expedition the team climbed over 2,500ft of the 9,000ft to the pole, hauling sledges weighing twice their own body weight.

Christmas was celebrated with a phone call to Prince Charles, the expedition patron, and the new millennium with a Mars Bar each. Eventually after 61 days toiling south in a 700-mile journey the team spotted the Amundsen-Scott South Pole base on the horizon. It was with huge joy and elation that they entered the history books.

In 2002, Ann finally reached the North Pole, often in temperatures from minus 40 to minus 60 across a moving icy terrain, very different from Antarctica. She completed seven more trips to the North Pole.

Ann conquers the North Pole (Image: Submitted)

Her only setback in this extraordinary personal journey was to abandon an attempt in 2005 to be the first woman to walk solo to the North Pole, because without warning the Russian authorities withdrew permission when she was well on her way.

Ann on her aborted mission to the North Pole (Image: Submitted)

Extreme cold, risks of storms, frostbite, gangrene and hypothermia, dangers of breaking ice, fear of being attacked by polar bears, they all dominated her polar adventures. It is appropriate that such an outstanding story concludes my series of Bradford’s female game-changers. In just over 120 years we have moved from the endless struggles of women to receive the same education as men in the last quarter of the 19th century (remember Fanny Hertz and Marion Bidder) to a woman such as Ann Daniels who can grasp such an opportunity to take her life to such a different plane.

* Martin Greenwood’s book Every Day Bradford has a story for each day of the year about people, places and events from Bradford’s history. Available online and at bookshops including Waterstones and Salts Mill.