Within minutes of listening to Louise Minchin talk about her incredible sporting feats, I find myself wanting to sign up for extreme triathlons, experience free diving in the dark and take up climbing. It was impossible not to feel motivated, empowered and energised by the former BBC Breakfast presenter turned athlete and author who was in Aberdeen last night for an inspirational talk to mark the publication of her latest book Isolation Island. But it wasn’t only Louise who captivated the sold out audience as she was joined on stage by Inverness’s world record-breaking cyclist Jenny Graham, the host for the evening, whose stories were equally as inspiring.
From terrifying ice dives and potholing to cycling through some of the world’s most dangerous places, there were no shortage of incredible stories between both Louise and Jenny. Louise Minchin and Jenny Graham empowering women to take on adventures And it was clear that the formidable duo were on a mission to empower everyone – especially women. “It’s all about encouraging more diversity in adventure,” Louise tells the audience.
“During my time on the BBC sofa I started to realise that the majority of times we interviewed people about epic stories they were men. “There were all these incredible women who weren’t being celebrated so that was the motivation to write my last book Fearless which is about ordinary women doing extraordinary things and celebrating these women.” Bumping into George Clooney Fem.