Adventurous Ed

13 JUL2010

Adventurous Ed Coats has been stung into action on reaching his 30th birthday. The ex-Scottish decathlon champion and cross channel swimmer recently finished second in the first first ever South Pole Race with James Cracknell and Ben Fogle. Now Ed has set himself a personal goal of completing 30 challenges in 12 months.

This coming of age challenge started on June 27 with the Dartmoor Classic Cyclosportive, a106-mile cycle not for the faint hearted. Ed finished in a gruelling 8 hours and 17 minutes. He is back already from his second challenge having crossed the Outer Hebrides in the HeB2B event and next takes on the 'Urban Rat Race' around the City of Edinburgh this weekend.

This mammoth set of challenges then heads to Dartmoor for the Endurance Life Mountain Marathon before heading to London for the Nokia Thames Swim. This is the first year this swim event has been held and competitors will swim from Hampton Court Palace to Raven's Ait (a small island on the Thames). Sure to be a cold and murky experience.

So why is Ed doing this apart from the onset of a very premature mid-life crisis? A big motivation is raising funds for Wellbeing of Women, a charity which supports and funds research into Women's health. Ed has been inspired by his work as an obstetrician and gynecologist and hopes his 12 month of challenge will make a real difference to the quality of women's health around the world.

Dr Ed Coats - '30 at 30' challenge is sponsored by X-Bionic.

Follow Ed's challenges online.