Having been a member of the Scout movement all my life, together with an interest and qualifications in mountaineering, my Fellowship was about organising and leading 29 members of West Lancashire Scouts on a mountaineering and exploration expedition to north-east Greenland. The party consisted of four Explorers aged 15 to 17, 13 Scout Network aged 18 to 21, and 12 Leaders with a mountaineering background. As well as ascending 16 significant unclimbed peaks, the team updated the mapping of an area in excess of 1,000km² and undertook various scientific data studies.

This created a team of people who continued the adventure thrust in the Scout County, and leading up to this event and in subsequent years I organised bi-annual mountaineering trips to the European Alps, Jotunheimen of Norway, and a Mountain Leader training and assessment programme. There was a further expedition in 2007 to Ren Land – an unexplored area of north-east Greenland. There was a significant sea-kayaking element in Scoresbysund that involved 50 members of the County.

I took early retirement in 2005 and subsequently spent six years taking students on 22 expeditions to developing countries, and also managed a spring snowmobile base in north-east Greenland.