When Anne Kershaw was a schoolgirl, the young Scot's travel dreams amounted to one day visiting London. These days, her idea of heading south is much more dramatic. For the past 20 years, Anne's working life has revolved around the South Pole, first as the owner of the world's only commercial airline flying to Antarctica and now as the boss of an environmental group fighting to save the ice-covered continent that she loves. She first visited the icy wilderness in 1985 with her adventurer pilot husband Giles, who operated flights and ski trips to the South Pole. But when he died in an accident, the Glaswegian took over his business and turned the firm into a respected airline, flying people like Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Michael Palin to the tundra from an airfield base in Chile. Then, after becoming the only person in history to win an MBE for services to Antarctic aviation, Anne sold the business in 2002 and set herself a new, daunting mission - to save the South Pole. As chief executive of campaign group 2041 - named for the date when the ban on Antarctic mining expires - Anne leads a team of adventurers and environmentalists trying to encourage young people to start taking action to save the planet ahead of the crucial deadline. Anne said: "There really is nowhere in the world like Antarctica, it's the most special and unique place I have ever seen. "For me, a lot of my heart is there. My first husband is buried there and I have worked there for so many years that Antarctica is a part of me as well now. "And it's important to me, and to the entire planet, because it is the last wilderness, it's spiritual, hostile and unknown and it's Mother Nature at her finest. "While 2041 might seem like a long way away, it'll be here in an instant and the issues we are fighting for are the issues that will affect my kids, your kids and the entire planet between now and then." The 50-year-old jetset Scot's Polar adventure started, suitably enough, on an aeroplane almost 30 years ago. As a stewardess, she met the dashing Cathay Pacific pilot Giles Kershaw and they married soon after. She went to Antarctica for the first time in 1985. Giles started the airline, Adventure Network International, to ferry thrill-seeking pals from Chile to the Antarctic to enjoy amazing unspoilt skiing and trekking. However, his love of adventure led to tragedy when he died just a couple of years later in an gyrocopter accident near the area now known as Mount Kershaw in Antarctica. Although her initial reaction was to leave the South Pole, she decided to stay. She spent a decade making Adventure Network safe and reliable so no other adventurers' wives would become widows on her watch. It worked. Anne's crew helped out friend Sir Ranulph when one of his jaunts went wrong and Palin completed his Pole to Pole mission via her trusty old aircraft. Setting up a base for the firm in Florida, Anne married snowboarding adventurer Doug Stoop and they had a son, Tyree, now nine, and adopted Than, also nine, from Thailand. The business became so successful that after winning her prized MBE, she sold the company eight years ago with plans to enjoy the northern hemisphere for a while. That break lasted just a few months when polar explorer turned eco-campaigner Rob Swan asked her to help with his environmental work. In 2005, she signed up as CEO of 2041, based in California, with the mission of educating and inspiring young people to tackle the green challenges the world faces, ahead of the drilling ban expiry in 30 years. Campaigners fear the white wilderness could be ravaged by energy-hungry corporations, drilling for natural resources which may be scarce by then. The date is a hook for people to start thinking about their local environment and the group use their passion for Antarctica to encourage activists to be equally protective of their local eco-system, water supplies and energy efficiency issues, whether that is in China, New York or Glasgow. Anne said: "I'd met Rob Swan in 1985 on my first visit to Antarctica, and knew him well through Giles, and he has been speaking about the environment and the Antarctic ever since that journey because people would listen to him. "He has always been a great entrepreneur for the environment but was a bit hopeless at the funding and business side of it, so when I was enjoying my retired bliss after selling Adventure Network, he asked me to come in and help get him set up as a company in the US. "Six years later, I'm still working there and love every minute of it. I enjoy hard work, I hate waste and I love the Antarctic, so it's perfect. "Between the two of us we have 50 years of experience with Antarctica, and the idea is to get young people involved and create ambassadors for the environment all over the world. "Rob travels the globe promoting the message and speaking to people while we also run major expeditions every year to get people talking. "We are back from a rewarding expedition where we were talking to a wide range of companies and agencies about renewable energy and how to best solve the problems we are facing. Fight "It was fantastic to be a part of that. People do care with and in this job, you can see things happening in front of your eyes." Anne said that helping to save the planet for her kids and to fight for Antarctica is the most rewarding work she has ever done in her life. It's not quite bumpy landings on a frozen tundra or rescuing explorers from the southernmost tip of the Earth but Anne's mission these days is to ensure others get to enjoy those adventures long after she is gone. She said: "I loved Adventure Network but it was a family of people trying to achieve their own goals. They were incredible people who humbled me, but with 2041, we are out to achieve goals for other people and it is all driven by something that is a lot more rewarding. "Antarctica is like an old friend. When I went back, I felt exactly the same as I ever had before. "Some of my greatest, happiest and saddest memories are in Antarctica. It's very special and this is my time to give something back." Source: Daily Record
