LIVE
COURAGEOUSLY
Courage.
Easy to say, not always easy to find.
A century ago, Ernest Shackleton enriched a life of exploration and achievement by finding the courage to survive - and lead - through extreme adversity. Courage means finding the inner strength to face down the obstacles in front of us with an eye to the best outcome for everyone involved. But it’s personal; courage comes in many forms.
This season, we ask inspirational individuals what it means to Live Courageously.
How would our lives change if courage arrived when called?
What would we say?
What could we achieve?
JO ROYLE
"TO LIVE COURAGEOUSLY REQUIRES AN INVESTMENT IN UNDERSTANDING, MAINTAINING AND ENHANCING YOUR EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL WELLBEING"
Jo Royle has been spearheading global marine programs and sailing ventures for over 20 years. She designed and built the Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran made out of reclaimed plastic bottles which, in 2010 she skippered across the Pacific.
A former trans-ocean sailing and racing skipper including expeditions to the Antarctic, Sundarbans and trans-Atlantic voyages, she founded Common Seas to design out marine plastic pollution.
She focuses on identifying critical marine issues and aligning senior experts with engineering solutions to reduce human impact on the sea.
MEGAN HINE
"TO LIVE COURAGEOUSLY IS TO SIT IN THE FIGHT, FLIGHT FREEZE RESPONSE AND EMBRACE THAT VULNERABILITY"
Megan Hine is an expedition guide and survival expert who has pioneered testing stunts and expeditions for adventure on TV. One of Bear Grylls’ original survival consultants, she has swam through crocodile infested waters to escape gunfire, kept venomous snakes in a box under her bed and is frankly the person to know if preparing for a life-threatening environment.
Keeping herself and her crew alive means she has learned to respect and understand intimately the terrain she operates in, and the indigenous communities who live there. She can climb, rig, lead, forage and she can catch fish with her bare hands.
In her film she discusses the fight, flight, freeze response, paving the way for women in TV and what it takes to be courageous when it matters most.
DR TESS MORRIS PATERSON
"TO LIVE COURAGEOUSLY REQUIRES AN INVESTMENT IN UNDERSTANDING, MAINTAINING AND ENHANCING YOUR EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL WELLBEING"
Jo Royle has been spearheading global marine programs and sailing ventures for over 20 years. She designed and built the Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran made out of reclaimed plastic bottles which, in 2010 she skippered across the Pacific.
A former trans-ocean sailing and racing skipper including expeditions to the Antarctic, Sundarbans and trans-Atlantic voyages, she founded Common Seas to design out marine plastic pollution.
She focuses on identifying critical marine issues and aligning senior experts with engineering solutions to reduce human impact on the sea.
FRESHTA IBRAHIMI
"TO LIVE COURAGEOUSLY IS TO USE ALL THE NEGATIVE ENERGY AND RAGE AND TURN IT INTO POSITIVE POWER"
Freshta is part of a newly emancipated generation of Afghani women who pursued their right to education despite constant derision and threats of violence, securing a scholarship to The American University in Kabul.
In 2016 she was on campus when a truck bomb detonated, blowing open a hole in the perimeter wall through which the Taliban attacked. They besieged the campus for almost 10 hours, stalking the corridors room to room, tossing grenades into classrooms and gunning those down who ran.
Freshta narrowly survived. The Taliban had forbidden women to be outdoors unaccompanied or engage in sport, now Freshta vowed to do both on the grandest stage possible; her and her friends would become Afghanistan's first female mountaineers.
Freshta is planning to become the first Afghan woman to summit Mount Everest to send a message of hope and resilience to the women of Afghanistan.
EMILY GARTHWAITE
"COURAGE IS MUCH QUIETER THAN WE THINK"
Emily Garthwaite is an award-winning photojournalist focusing on humanitarian and environmental issues. Ever since using her mother's camera to shoot a local forest fire at a young age, Emily had a calling, one which has taken her around the world, with particular attention to the Middle East.
Based in Iraq for the past five years she has travelled thousands of miles across the country, on foot, by car and by boat, along one of the world's most militarised rivers, the Tigris from source to sea. Her party were the first people ever to do so. From photographing the Turkey-Syria earthquake earlier this year, to one of the world's largest annual pilgrimages, Arba'in, Emily's nature and gender afford her access to the innermost workings of the Middle East and her work valiantly lifts the curtain on a place often mistakenly represented in the west.
Watch the film to learn what courage means to Emily.
ANANYA PRASAD
"TO BE COURAGEOUS IS TO NOT BE AFRAID OF FAILURE,
TO ACCEPT IT AS AN OPTION, AND DO IT ANYWAY"
Jo Royle has been spearheading global marine programs and sailing ventures for over 20 years. She designed and built the Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran made out of reclaimed plastic bottles which, in 2010 she skippered across the Pacific.
A former trans-ocean sailing and racing skipper including expeditions to the Antarctic, Sundarbans and trans-Atlantic voyages, she founded Common Seas to design out marine plastic pollution.
She focuses on identifying critical marine issues and aligning senior experts with engineering solutions to reduce human impact on the sea.
HILLARY ALLEN
In 2017 Hillary Allen was at the top of her game, number one in sky running, winning races around the world. Without warning, it was all torn away from her. Whilst running a Skyrace in Tromsø, Norway, she slipped and fell 150 feet from a cliff, breaking 14 bones.
Lucky to be alive, initially Hillary could barely consider whether she would ever compete in elite level running again. However, her introspective journey lead her back to the sport and through relentless self belief remarkably she made a full recovery and even returned to elite level competition.
In the film soon to be released, Hillary will share just how she managed to flip that switch to truly believe in herself.
DR BETH HEALEY
Dr Beth Healey is an Emergency Medicine doctor with experience operating in extreme environments including Svalbard, Siberia, Greenland, Antarctica and the North Pole.
She has overwintered in Antarctica with European Space Agency (ESA) at spaceflight analogue ‘Concordia’, where she researched the effects of isolation and extreme environment on the physiology and psychology of the crew. During the winter due to the low temperatures (-80C) and long polar night (105 days without any sunlight) they were completely isolated even in case of emergency.
Since returning she has contributed to a Space and Global Health UN specialist interest group considering how we can use space derived technology to solve medical problems on earth including life support systems, telemedicine and remote diagnostics.
We will continue to stories from courageous individuals.
Return to this page for ongoing inspiration to Live Courageously.