My name is Nina and I am 14 years old. When I am 18 I want to become the youngest person to cross Antarctica in memory of my sister Verity who died of cancer in 2009. I would also like to raise recognition of my Mum’s charity the Teapot Trust, which provides art-therapy for sick children in hospital.

Crossing Antarctica is a mammoth task to plan and complete, along with all my school work, so I have decided to get out there and get as much experience as possible!

Throughout my expedition, I will be dragging all of my rations, equipment and provisions behind me in a sledge. The basics of this though is cross-country skiing, so my family and I went to visit our friends in Norway, as they are keen skiers and they have a beautiful hut in the mountains. Alpine skiing is extremely different from cross-country skiing, and we realised that right from the start. Because your ankles are not supported, you have limited control whilst going downhill, although the Norwegians made it look easy.

It was the first time any of us had cross-country skied before, and my little sister Isla especially enjoyed being pulled along on the sledge. My Dad and I were challenged at the end of the week because it is a tradition for our friends on Easter Friday to complete a 30km trek across the mountains. We found it difficult going downhill, and were quickly left behind, but going uphill I found much easier and soon we caught up again.

In May I went to meet Sir Ranulph Fiennes with my Dad. To be honest I was very nervous - I mean this is the man who hacked off his frostbitten fingers with a saw and is described as “the world’s greatest living explorer”. However, he put up with my questions and I was very honoured that he had agreed to meet me. I had spent ages since the beginning of the year emailing various explorers to find out how exactly you plan an expedition across Antarctica, and Sir Ranulph replied.

Meeting him really put into perspective the enormity of what I plan to do - he applied to over 5000 sponsors for the Transglobe expedition, and the coldest temperature that he recorded in Antarctica was a windchill factor of -120 ‘c! !

I love camping, and every year we meet up with friends in the Lake District where we go scrambling, wild swimming, hiking, and generally mess about with 7 other kids. This year Dad and I drove down early and spent several nights wild camping in the hills. Camping in the Lakes is a completely different environment than anything in Antarctica. For one there are many paths amongst the mountains, and usually, on many of the popular routes the hills are teeming with people. Navigation is also much simpler, there are many landmarks and also detailed maps which are easy to follow.

The problem with Antarctica is that there are virtually no landmarks and because of the constant light in the summer time and the problem of magnetic variation, navigation is extremely difficult.

Even carrying food and equipment for a couple of days was hard enough, and there was probably lots of stuff that we brought wasn’t used. We also took my sister up the mountain for a night, and nothing in her rucksack was used! She managed to drag a onesie, a teddy, a pair of crocs and a storybook up the hill, but who can blame her as we let her pack her own bag.

The problem with living near Edinburgh is that there is never much snow, but there are plenty of mountains just a couple of hours away. We spent a week in Skye with some friends, and we did lots of climbing. Unusually we had amazing weather, which meant that conditions were perfect for climbing. We had an fantastic guide, from Skye Guides, who took us the most amazing locations. He took us sea cliff climbing in an inlet only reachable at low tide, and let Dad and I climb up a tough chimney with the sea raging below us.

Our guide, Mike, brought my family and I up the Inaccessible Pinnacle. The Inn Pinn is the hardest Munro because of the climb at the top. The climb is not necessarily that difficult, but the pinnacle is very exposed. There is over a 2000ft drop on either side of the Inn Pinn, but the view is absolutely incredible. I could sense my Dad’s knees shaking! My wee sister who usually hates walking managed the whole thing, but she was shattered by the end. We were all very proud of her as she normally complains the whole way.

On the way down the mountain we all stopped for a swim in a waterfall which I can honestly say was the most refreshing swim of my life.

In the summer we travelled to France, where we spent a week of adventuring. My favourite activity by far was the canyoning, as I love jumping off things into cold water. We live near the sea at home so most days in the summer I am off pier jumping with my friends. We also did some Via Feratta, which is like climbing but you clip yourself onto a wire and there are metal foot and handholds in some places where the rock is too difficult to ascend.

In the Alps you really realise the scale of the mountains, and how different each landscape can be. My Dad and I always try to cycle a Col when we go to France, and you realise that no hill in the UK could compare to grinding away upwards for 20km.

hope that in 4 years time I will be all set and ready to go to Antarctica. 4 years may seem a long time, but with all the stuff I have to fit in between now and then it will fly by and there is a lot to do! I have to thanks Boing for creating such a versatile and amazing bracelet that is suitable for whatever I do and wherever I go. I am not a girlie girl so I love having a bracelet that is not sparkly or pink. My Boing band will come with me wherever I go!