Jo Bradshaw Speaker | Primary & Enterprise & Creative & Sports & PHSCE & Lifestyle & Careers & Women & Assemblies and Celebrations Events & Well-being & Anti-Bullying & Adventure

Jo Bradshaw

From a shy, risk-averse no-sayer to a high altitude go-getter, Jo never even wanted to climb a hill and now she has climbed Everest and completed the 7 summits. Anything is possible if you say yes now and work it out later.

Jo Bradshaw embarked on her first challenge in 2004, cycling 500km in Peru for Asthma UK. Little did she know that it would change her life.

At the time she was a Business Advisor in Buckinghamshire, living a very normal and safe life - but over the next 3 years she took part in another 2 cycle challenges, finally being offered a role as challenge crew by Discover Adventure (DA), which she did during her annual leave. In late 2007 DA offered her a job in their offices in Salisbury running the Open Challenges and life since then has never been the same. Jo moved the 120 miles from Bucks to Wiltshire in early 2008, halving her salary, selling her fancy car, renting out her house and went from suits and heels to jeans and walking boots. She finally saw what her version of success looked like.

Jo worked at DA for 2 years, gaining a huge amount of mountain and leadership experience before taking the plunge and going freelance in 2010. She gained her Mountain Leader qualification and headed off to the hills.

Since then she has led nearly 40 expeditions on Kilimanjaro along with numerous expeditions on foot, 2 wheels or horseback. Enjoying life at high altitude, she works all around the world with both charity and private clients. She has also led 8 schools’ expeditions in India, Nepal, Bolivia, Eswatini and Tanzania, encouraging her students to jump out of their comfort zones and go all in whilst on their expedition of a lifetime.

In the UK Jo teaches and assesses the expedition element of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award from Bronze through to Gold and also combines her past business experiences with her current mountain leadership to deliver insightful and challenging leadership workshops in schools and businesses.

Jo's talk will take you from her risk averse no-saying days at school and in business to scaling the heights of Everest (via and earthquake), and completing the 7 summits, the highest mountain on each of the 7 continents.

As a good friend said to her, 'we all knew you were capable, you just needed to quit the excuses and try!' She has now learnt to kick the 'but' out of her life and she inspires her audiences of all ages to do so too.

Testimonials from Teachers

"Jo Bradshaw has spoken at two national DofE Events recently and Jo inspired our Gold Award holders with stories of her amazing adventures of climbing Everest and other adventures. Jo was motivational and engaged significantly with the audience. We would be thrilled to have her back to speak at future events and would highly recommend her for speaking and inspiring young people."

– Christine Phillips, Events Manager, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

"Jo joined us at our Speech Day, with short notice, and provided us with an insight into the world of a freelance expedition leader and outdoor instructor. Her speech was enticing and inspirational, and we very much enjoyed listening to her experience of her mountain expeditions, in particular, her challenging situations such as being on Mount Everest during the earthquake."

– Simon Weale, Headmaster, Shebbear College

"Jo has spoken twice in our Year 6 Geography class when we have been studying mountains. The children really enjoyed hearing about her experiences and asking her (a lot of!) questions. I could tell from our discussion after each session that she has inspired them. One of the parents came to see me this morning and told me her son got home and straightaway started telling her everything he had remembered from the afternoon!"

– Oliver Elford, Teacher, Downton CofE Primary School

"Jo was very approachable and did a very appropriate speech, fitted the bill perfectly, thank you."

– Robert Brooks, PE Teacher, Lord William's School

"It was absolutely fantastic! Nothing but positive responses from our students which in itself is a huge achievement given their profiles. So many students have come to tell me how much they enjoyed Jo's talk and how inspired they were by her and her story. We are so grateful to her for coming and talking to us and would thoroughly recommend her to any other schools. Thanks again for facilitating her talk."

– Pippa Burrows, Curriculum Coordinator, Meadow Bridge School

"Jo was brilliant- exactly what we were looking for! Thank you, as always, for sourcing someone do good for us."

– Lizzie Sturdy, Head of Art, Parkstone Grammar School