Challenger pulls out all the stops for polar race

11:06am Thursday 6th April 2006

SPORTS and English teacher James Turner has given up his job at a public school to concentrate on training for the Polar Challenge Race 2007.

Mr Turner, 29, whose home is at Manton, has been teaching at Millfield School in Somerset. He has given up the classroom full time and become a supply teacher to give him time to prepare for what is regarded as one of the toughest challenges in the world.

Mr Turner, whose parents live in Savernake Forest, will find the polar conditions a far cry from what he experienced when he was at school.

He went to an international school in Cairo and still yearns, he said, for the sun and warmth.

He and his race partner Jake Morland, 30, from Suffolk, are taking part in the pairs event and will trek 400 miles on foot and skis from the North West Territories of Canada now known by its Inuit name of Nunavet to the magnetic north pole.

Mr Turner and Mr Morland have successfully completed their assessments to ensure they are physically and mentally up to the challenge.

To enter each contestant has to find £19,000 to cover equipment, training, flights and accommodation at the start and end of the race.

Accommodation out on the ice will consist of the tents each team will have to carry along with their food and other survival equipment.

Mr Turner said: "I am intending to raise £250,000."

The bulk of what he raises will be going to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

He said he and Mr Morland, who met at Portsmouth University, realised they had set themselves a very ambitious fundraising target.

"We are aiming high because we thought we might as well," said Mr Turner.

Anyone wishing to sponsor him can ring him on 07813 833650.