I’d had emails throughout the year about the accident I’d had in 2006. No it doesn’t “haunt” me, why should it? Life must always go on.

I was always going to make it back to the Arctic. Nothing was going to stop me. I lived for nothing but seeing my hands fit again and to get dog fur back on my clothes. I think of my dead dogs every single day. It will always hurt. And sometimes I cry because I still love them and will always miss them. But no, it does not ‘haunt’ me. And no, it hasn’t made me religious. The only god I believe in comes in the shape of a dog.

Travelling over sea ice is never 100% safe. That said ever since I was a kid fear has never been a reason for me not to do something. My poor Mum.