Rosie Swale-Pope

Rosie Swale-Pope MBE is a remarkable adventurer, author and ultra-marathon runner whose extraordinary feats of endurance inspire audiences to push beyond perceived limits. She is the only person to have completed a solo run around the world, covering over 20,000 miles across five years to raise £250,000 for prostate cancer awareness and Russian orphans, and has since undertaken a solo run across the United States at age 70. Her international bestselling book 'Just a Little Run Around the World' captures her journey through Siberian winters, extreme danger and profound solitude. Through her compelling storytelling, Rosie equips audiences with powerful lessons in resilience, determination and the courage to turn adversity into purposeful action.

At 18, Rosie Swale-Pope MBE quit her job and hitchhiked to Delhi, Nepal and Russia with barely any belongings or money, setting in motion a lifetime of extraordinary adventures that would see her become one of the world's most accomplished ultra-endurance athletes. Her early expeditions included sailing around the world with her first husband and their two children, a journey sponsored by the Daily Mail and ITN that nearly ended in disaster three times, and later sailing solo across the Atlantic Ocean, riding 3,000 miles across Chile on horseback, and running 1,000 miles solo across Iceland from the Arctic Circle to Reykjavík. When her second husband died of prostate cancer in 2002, Rosie transformed her grief into action, embarking on a five-year solo run around the world that covered more than 20,000 miles through Siberian winters, encounters with wolves and axmen, and profound isolation, ultimately raising £250,000 for prostate cancer awareness and Russian orphans.

Rosie's credentials as an ultra-endurance athlete are formidable and wide-ranging. She has completed the gruelling Marathon des Sables twice, running 243 kilometres across the Sahara Desert in what is described as the toughest footrace on Earth, carrying all her supplies on her back. She earned a bronze medal at South Africa's legendary Comrades Marathon, completing the equivalent of two back-to-back marathons in just over 11 hours, an achievement likened to climbing Mount Everest for road runners. Her international bestselling book 'Just a Little Run Around the World' chronicles her around-the-world journey with understated honesty and gripping detail. At age 70, she completed a solo run across the United States, a journey that took over two years and demonstrated that age need not limit ambition or capability. Most recently, she has undertaken a 6,000-mile run from Brighton to Kathmandu in Nepal, supporting PHASE Worldwide's health, education and livelihood programmes.

Through her speaking engagements, Rosie equips audiences with practical lessons in resilience, determination and the courage to turn adversity into meaningful action. Her storytelling draws from decades of facing extreme physical and emotional challenges, offering insights into overcoming fear, maintaining purpose during hardship, and finding strength in vulnerability. Audiences leave her presentations with renewed belief in their own capacity to tackle seemingly impossible goals, armed with strategies for persistence and a deeper understanding that limitations are often self-imposed. Whether addressing corporate teams seeking to build resilience or individuals navigating personal challenges, Rosie's message is clear: extraordinary achievements begin with ordinary people who refuse to give up, and the human spirit's capacity for endurance far exceeds what most dare to imagine.