Sir Ranulph Fiennes was, with Charles Burton, the first man to reach both poles by surface travel and, with Mike Stroud, the first to cross the Antarctic Continent unsupported. In the 1960s he was removed from the SAS Regiment for misuse of explosives but, joining the army of the Sultan of Oman, received that country's Bravery Medal on active service in 1971. He is the only person yet to have been awarded two clasps to the Polar medal for both Antarctic and the Arctic regions. Fiennes has led over 30 expeditions including the first polar circumnavigation of the Earth, and in 2003 he ran seven marathons in seven days on seven continents in aid of the British Heart Foundation, 3½ months after a massive heart attack.

In 1993 Her Majesty the Queen awarded Fiennes the Order of the British Empire (OBE) because, on the way to breaking records, he has raised over £18 million for charity. He was named Best Sportsman in the 2007 ITV Great Briton Awards and in 2009 he became the oldest Briton to reach the summit of Everest, raising a total of £6.3m for Marie Curie Cancer Care. The Coldest Journey in 2014 raised £1.3 million for Seeing is Believing.  In 2015 he successfully completed the Marathon des Sables raising over £2 million for Marie Curie. Ranulph holds the current world record for being the only person ever to have climbed Mount Everest and crossed both Antarctica and Arctic Ocean via the Poles.

He has written 23 books, Cold came out in 2013, Agincourt was published in September 2014. Heat October 2015 and his latest book Fear has just been published this year - 2016.

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