Victoria Humphries

Polar adventurer, three times Guinness World Record holder, mountain climber, marathon runner, author, businesswoman and just a ‘normal’ person

In 1997 Victoria, along with her mother Sue, became part of the first all-female expedition to the North Pole. Along the way they experienced temperatures of -40oC, constantly shifting ice and at one point both Sue and Victoria fell into the Arctic Ocean finding themselves in a life or death situation. The expedition tested their resilience, their ability to cope with a constantly changing environment and most of all their determination to keep on heading North no matter what.

Victoria is unusual in that she combines stories from her various adventures and challenges with her extensive commercial experience to create a talk that is both inspirational and relatable to the students. She is known for avoiding technical jargon and simply uses her real life experiences to inspire and motivate.

She focuses on helping students to recognise that they live in a ‘non-linear’ world; one where there will be constant change, they will fall over, they will need to change direction and there will be many times where they don’t know all the answers. She explains how resilience is not about being strong but about learning to pick yourself back up again and keep going. Victoria is passionate about inspiring young people, and especially young women, to follow their dreams and realise that by taking one step at a time they can achieve anything they desire.