“There’s no magic to running far or climbing Everest. Endurance is mental strength. It’s all about heart.”

I’m probably going to be the scruffiest Chief Scout you’ve ever had and my health and safety policy is non-existent.

You only get one chance at life and you have to grab it boldly.

Change the way you use your time, and you change your life.

Nobody wants to end up super rich and famous – but divorced. I’m always clear on that and try to stay on the right side of the line.

Faith is personal if it’s to be real.

There is little faith involved in setting out on a journey where the destination is certain and every step in between has been mapped in detail. Bravery, trust, is about leaving camp in the dark, when we do not know the route ahead and cannot be certain we will ever return.

Alpha was the best thing I ever did. It helped answer some huge questions and to find a simple empowering faith in my life.

The difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary is so often just simply that little word – extra. And for me, I had always grown up with the belief that if someone succeeds it is because they are brilliant or talented or just better than me…

I was always brought up to have a cup of tea at halfway up a rock face.

It breaks my heart that my father never knew my children. He should have been around for another 25 years.

There is no feeling like coming home after danger.

I was super skeptical about doing TV. I said no three times, part of which was confidence because I didn’t really understand that world. I know how to climb mountains and do all that, but I wasn’t a TV person.

That for me was a great liberator to realize that the show isn’t about me running around, jumping off stuff and flexing muscles, it’s about inspiring people. That makes me really happy.

I find skydiving really hard. I broke my back while skydiving when I was in the military, and for 18 months all my nightmares were about falling.

I started to get so many letters from unlikely people; a single mum going, “I watch your show, I’m not into survival, but I hold down four jobs and I get it when you say it’s about persistence and putting a positive attitude into things during difficult times.”

I loved climbing because of the freedom, and having time and space. I remember coming off Everest for the last time, thinking of Dad and wishing that he could have seen what I saw. He would have loved it.