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

Sometimes it’s hard for us to believe, really believe, that God cares and wants good things for us and doesn’t just want us to go off and give everything up and become missionaries in Burundi.

Life’s full of lots of dream-stealers always telling you you need to do something more sensible. I think it doesn’t matter what your dream is, just fight the dream-stealers and hold onto it.

Our dreams are just wishes, if we never follow them through with action. And in life, you have got to be able to light your own fire.

I’m terrified of walking into a room full of people. Sitting down at a dinner table with 15 strangers brings me out in a sweat.

People ask me, “How do I succeed?” Whatever it is they do, I say, “Go and find 20 ways of messing it up. By 21, you’ll be getting there.” Life is an adventure, go back with cuts, scars and bruises.

Many people find it hard to understand what it is about a mountain that draws men and women to risk their lives on her freezing, icy faces – all for a chance at that single, solitary moment on the top.

I was christened Edward. My sister gave me the name Bear when I was a week old and it has stuck.

Time and experience have taught me that fame and money very rarely go to the worthy, by the way – hence we shouldn’t ever be too impressed by either of those impostors. Value folk for who they are, how they live and what they give – that’s a much better benchmark.

Our achievements are generally limited only by the beliefs we impose on ourselves.

Nobody else is stupid enough to get themselves into the straits that I get into.

If you risk nothing you gain nothing

All my life the only thing I’ve been good at has been climbing and throwing myself off big things.

Always keep the big picture in mind- you are greatly loved by Jesus and your job is to love Him and others in return. The rest is detail.

In the British Special Air Service, combat fitness is all about running.

My work is all about adventure and teamwork in some of the most inhospitable jungles, mountains and deserts on the planet. If you aren’t able to look after yourself and each other, then people die.

You can’t live someone else’s expectations in life. It’s a recipe for disaster.