You shouldn't be able to do a swim at the North Pole, it should be frozen over.

I've got two dogs - one's a Jack Russell and she's one year old now, and I've got another dog called Kanga, and I got him from a rescue shelter, and there's nothing I enjoy more than just walking them on the beach in Cape Town. I find that very destressing and very relaxing.

I got bored and then joined the British SAS. It was five very exciting years of my life, and then I'd always had this passion for swimming, so started swimming around the world, in some of the most exotic and distant and dangerous locations.

We have to appreciate that we are part of nature, we must work with nature; the environment is our lifeline.

You shouldn't be able to do a swim at the North Pole, it should be frozen over.

I was very, very lucky because I started swimming when most of the landmarks in the world had not been swum.

I love swimming, swimming's my passion and I hope I swim until the last day of my life, so I really, really do enjoy swimming, but swimming for me is simply a way of carrying a message.