22 Quotes by Lewis Gordon Pugh

On 15 July 2007, I swam across an open patch of sea at the North Pole to highlight the melting of the Arctic sea ice.

Not to be too grandiose about it, but in a way I see myself like Sir Edmund Hillary. The water was my Everest.

Of all the creatures in the world that really frighten me - the hyena in Africa, the great white shark - leopard seals are near the top of the list. They're killers. If my team spots one, they'll pull me out of the water.

On my second swim at Deception Island, the water was very clear and I was looking at hundreds of whale bones beneath me. It was a graveyard from the whaling some time in the 1920s-30s.

Britain has bred many great explorers, but they seem to get so little coverage compared to soccer and rugby players.

I can't think of anything more important than the environment we leave to our children and our children's children.

Normally I don't race other people; I challenge the environment and my own limitations.

I think that I was slightly naive. I thought that if I showed people the beauty of the Arctic and the beauty of the polar bears that they would care so much that they would stand up and try to make a change.

In the cold, all the blood rushes to your core to protect your heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and brain. When you leave the water, the blood rushes back to your arms and legs, absorbs that freezing cold, and brings it back to the heart.