The Unlikely Everest Summiteer - Jessica Hepburn on Adventure Through Adversity

Jessica Hepburn is the only woman in the world to have swam the English Channel, run the London Marathon, and climbed Mt. Everest - the so called 'Sea, Street, Summit Challenge.' She also claims to be the only person to have listened to every available episode of the popular BBC Radio 4 show, Desert Island Discs (there's over 3,000!) But that is just the adventure headlines. And at the heart of Jessica's story is one of loss, heartbreak, trauma, and ultimately how she has been able to own the adversity in her life, and turn it into something that creates positive change for herself and others. Jessica is an adventure activist, arts producer and author of three books, her latest, Save Me From The Waves is an adventure story with a difference. Documenting her quest to climb the largest mountain in the world, coupled with her desire to listen to every episode of Desert Island Discs it is a beautifully written story of how the show's Castaway's and their music choices have inspired and helped Jessica make sense of her own life. In this conversation we discuss Jessica's love of lists, how the comedian Jimmy Carr initially inspired her, how she's been part of a movement to change the stigma on infertility, why and how she swam the channel, her journey to summiting Everest, why everyone should tell there life story creatively, how her destination was not what she was expecting and how she was able to make meaning out of it through art. Mentioned in the podcast Buy Jessica’s New Book: Save Me From The Waves: https://geni.us/SaveMeFromTheWaves Desert Island Discs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr Swimquest: https://swimquest.uk.com/ Serpentine Swim Club: https://serpentineswimmingclub.com/ Ramblers: https://www.ramblers.org.uk/go-walking/ramblers-groups Get in contact: IG: https://www.instagram.com/tombryanyeah/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/greatbritishadventurespodcast Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@greatbritishadventures Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:30 Desert Island Discs Superfan 05:10 A Lover of Lists 07:51 Jimmy Carr and What do You Want? 11:40 Turning adversity into positive change 14:35 Writing her first book 19:17 Changing the stigma on infertility 23:12 A disease of the mind 28:39 Have another life alongside your fertility journey 30:36 Deciding to swim the Channel 35:29 Learn from those who have been before 42:07 Mental vs Physical Strength 51:31 Chomolungma 53:01 Deciding to take on Everest 56:19 Hanging out with celebrities 58:42 Training in Scotland for Everest 01:01:01 Technical Skills 01:02:49 Making training a way of life 01:04:54 Processing a delay 01:07:07 2nd attempt 01:11:17 Bad press about Everest 01:15:35 Jessica's work of art 01:19:04 3rd attempt 01:25:25 The descent story 01:32:39 Jessica's relationship with anger 01:34:55 Tell your life story creatively 01:38:53 Destinations and goals vs the journey