Manley Blog

Posted March 16th, 2010 by Manley Hopkinson

Hi South Polers

Another hectic couple of weeks with so much happening

The Best of British Foundation – a registered charity – has now been formed, with the South Pole expedition providing the impetus to have a high impact start to what will be a long-term focus to realise benefit for education, social cohesion, business development and youth opportunity. This has now become much, much bigger in both concept and application. This is about truly realising the benefits of such an expedition on a scale hitherto unknown.

On Friday we are back at St Mary’s College, Twickenham, for our next physical and mental assessment. Not only will we be subjected to physical exhaustion and profiling we are also using expert psychological help to work on self and team awareness and development. 80-90% of success is mental. You could be the fittest person in the world and still fail miserably at racing to the South Pole. It is what you can do with your mind and body that will make the difference, and we are preparing both to be the best we can be.

Mim Shaw has joined our ranks now. Not for ice work but to enable us to get to the ice. She is a hugely experienced fund-raiser and marketeer who has taken on the role of Chief Fund Raiser for the Expedition and the Foundation. Good to have you onboard Mim!

Speak soon and blog soon

Yours aye

Manley