South Pole trekker from Derby hopes to inspire others

An Army officer, who is thought to have become the first woman of colour to complete a solo expedition across Antarctica, has said she hopes to inspire others through her achievement.

Preet Chandi, from Derby, trekked 700 miles in 40 days, facing temperatures of -50C.

The 32-year-old said she was not always encouraged to do something different but had learned a lot from her journey.

She said was "OK to dream" and important to push boundaries.

Ms Chandi has previously said people at her local gurdwara were surprised she was undertaking the challenge and she was told she "didn't look like a polar explorer".

But Speaking to Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 Ms Chandi said she did have support from those closest to her.

"The reason I talk about not being encouraged to push boundaries is because I've met a lot of people in similar positions.

"I think it's quite common for those that are closest to us sometimes to hold us back.

"People want to do things that are the normal in their community or their society and when you want to do things that aren't necessarily the norm people are like 'why are you doing that?'.

"A lot of the time in certain communities I think people think that success is what they think is normal, so for example, 'why haven't you settled down and had kids yet?' because that's the normal thing to do."

"It meant so much for people to believe in me and think 'yes I believe you can do this'," she said.

Ms Chandi said she felt confident to talk about her experience of breaking the boundaries.

"I remembered getting to the South Pole and thinking 'you're not in the wrong Preet'.

"I hope I can help people, to inspire them to achieve whatever they want.

"It's OK to dream and want to do something that you might not know anything about but we learn and we start somewhere," she said.

Speaking on Friday Ms Chandi said she was still at the Union Glacier camp in Antarctica waiting to start her journey home.

She said: "I feel good. I feel like I'm going to have a little bit more of a shock when I get internet connection and I get back to Chile and see what's been going on."

The Prime Minister has been among those to congratulate the Army physiotherapist on her achievement.

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