She’s officially home!

by | Jan 28, 2022 | Who We Help

She’s officially home!

Wow! what a welcome!

Having finally had time to draw breath after a 2-week media frenzy following the return from Antarctica, Capt Preet Chandi — aka ‘Polar Preet’, was finally officially welcomed home; and what a warm welcome she received.

Last night, hosted at the Mitie offices in the Shard, a star-studded audience gathered to hear the highs and lows of her epic 3-year journey getting her to the start line and culminating in her 40-day, unsupported trek to the Pole. As it proved, it was a triumph requiring extraordinary endurance, resilience, tenacity, physical effort and even moments of humour to reach the end. There are now many more youngsters who may realise trekking to the South Pole is not to be confused with a trek to Southall!

Recognising the many people and organisations that helped her through, the story was nevertheless a fabulous insight into how Preet, as an individual, overcame the many hurdles and how, through her ‘can do’ gritty determination and attitude, she accomplished an extraordinary feat, in setting the bar so high and breaking down so many perceptions and barriers. A moving and inspiring tale from an exceptional achiever which all started with an idea and googling “what is a polar explorer?” to ending up entering her name in the record books as a truly fantastic inspiration to a generation.

Through the generosity of several faithful sponsors, Team Army was thrilled to to have played a vital role in helping to fund her and, as we heard, yesterday, this was only the first part towards the ultimate goal, a challenge yet to be achieved; an unsupported, solo, traverse of Antarctica!

Team Army again looks forward to playing our part in making this challenge a reality. As Lamont Kirkland, CEO of Team Army said, ‘this would truly catapult Preet to become one of the greatest living explorers of all time, male or female’.

Watch this space!

This expedition was always about so much more than me, I wanted to encourage people to push their boundaries and to believe in themselves. I don’t want to just break the glass ceiling, I want to smash it into a million pieces.

Captain Preet Chandi

Polar Explorer

Would your company like to sponsor Preet’s next expedition?

Contact enquiries@teamforces.org

ABOUT PREET

Army Captain Preet Chandi is based at a Medical Regiment in the North West of England where her primary role is as a physiotherapist, she’s also the medical lead for the Army Rugby 7s team and occasionally works with the Army Engagement team.

Although Preet has a day job, her first love is adventure, and pushing mental and physical boundaries. As well as playing tennis competitively for the Army she has trained to become a Nordic ski instructor. She has hiked and climbed in Kenya, Morocco, Mexico, Nepal, Bolivia, Peru, Iceland and the Alps and last year she completed the gruelling Marathon des Sables – a six-day, 251km ultra-marathon in the Saharan desert.

SUPPORTERS

“This is a solo expedition but I’m not doing this on my own, there are so many people supporting me.”

Captain Preet Chandi
Amey
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Microsoft
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Dell
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Dell Technologies is committed to transforming businesses, shaping the future of innovation and developing technologies to drive human progress.

Qioptiq
Qioptiq is part of Excelitas Technologies, a technology leader in delivering high-performance advanced defence and aerospace solutions delivering mission-critical performance, reliability and support. We work closely with our customers providing expert capability every step of the way. Our expertise in Thermal, Fused and night vision equipment, energetic safety systems, electro-optics, sensors and detectors, enables us to meet the exacting requirements of our customers.
Fujitsu
For over 50 years Fujitsu has innovated with the MOD, Government Departments and intelligence communities, co-creating new technologies and capabilities. We understand that within the military, end-to-end digitalisation is crucial, and are committed to developing innovative digital solutions that overcome the complexities of transformation and deliver decision advantage. As a result, Fujitsu has security cleared staff and experience to deliver and manage both generic industry offerings and those tailored to specialist needs at all levels of classification. From IT Service Management, secure cloud, software defined networking, information and application integration, Artificial Intelligence and Dev Ops.

Fujitsu promote a Human Centric Intelligent Society, in which innovation is driven by the integration of people, information and infrastructure.

Team Army
Team Army and Team Ethos are co-brands of a programme which helps to fund sport, challenge and adventure in the armed forces community in order to improve health, wellbeing and recovery. We help the best get better.
Harmonic
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Ultra
Ultra Electronic Holdings plc specialises in providing application-engineered bespoke solutions. We focus on our customers’ mission critical and intelligent systems in the defence, security, critical detection & control markets. Our capabilities and technologies can be found on many of the world’s long-term military programmes.