Andrea swims 65km across the 3 longest lakes in Wales, England and Scotland, runs the 3 highest peaks and cycles the 812km in between them all – why? To raise awareness of female menstrual health.
In a bid to raise awareness of women’s menstrual & reproductive health, Andrea Mason our founder has set four new world records, including becoming the fastest known person to swim and run the longest lakes and highest peaks in Wales, England and Scotland, whilst cycling between them. She completed this gruelling challenge and new world record in 4 days, 7 hours and 58 minutes.
Her ‘Sea to Summit Extreme’ challenge started at Lake Bala in Wales on Monday 25 July and finished on Ben Nevis in Scotland on Friday 29 July 2022. In just over 4 days, Mason swam 65km, cycled 800km and ran 44km up three mountains whilst gaining 3400m of height. This equates to swimming the English Channel twice, riding 20 Olympic distance triathlon bike legs and running a mountain version of the London Marathon.
Andrea’s motivation to put herself through the brutalness of the challenge, came after a diagnosis of severe endometriosis* and cervical cancer in 2017 which resulted in life-saving surgery. Like many women, it took Andrea years to get an endometriosis diagnosis and after missing several smear tests, she has been on mission to encourage women worldwide to attend or organise their smear tests. She is also tackling the bigger issue of the taboo surrounding menstrual and reproductive health which means many conditions go undiagnosed.
“This was definitely the hardest challenge I have ever completed. I knew it was going to be extremely tough, but the gale force winds and rain at the start made it even tougher. Fortunately, the weather improved on day two, but I had to work a lot harder on the first day, meaning I was already tired,” said Mason.
“When I got to Loch Awe, I was extremely daunted by the length of the loch. 41km is an extremely long way, but I knew I had to keep going, there was no way I could give up. I thought a lot about why I was doing it, female menstrual health should not be a taboo subject, we need to talk about it! I kept putting one arm in front of the other, and one leg in front of the other until I reached the end, hoping that every stroke and stride was helping to raise awareness.”
