Preet Chandi

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Captain Harpreet Chandi, also known as Polar Preet, is a British Army physiotherapist with 3 Medical Regiment who completed the 700-mile trek for a solo expedition to the South Pole this year, making her the first British born Sikh and woman of colour to do so.

Chandi recorded her 700 mile 40 day journey in a series of voice notes which were transcribed and published to her website. Chandi consistently said in several interviews prior to her departure and through her journey, the challenges she faced as a woman of South Asian heritage were numerous and included perceptions of rebelliousness and stepping out of line from both mainstream British commentators and South Asian communities: “A lot of the time, especially in my community, it’s those closest to us who sometimes hold us back, because we’re doing something that’s out of the norm or something that’s different.”. When she returned from a trek across Greenland in 2020, Preet Chandi had a mild case of frostbite on her nose. “I remember somebody saying to me they’ve never seen an injury like that on somebody of my colour skin before,” ... I am an Asian woman, I’m not the image that people expect to see out there.”

In announcing her achievement, Chandi said: "This expedition was always about so much more than me. I want to encourage people to push their boundaries and to believe in themselves, and I want you to be able to do it without being labelled a rebel. I have been told no on many occasions and told to “just do the normal thing”, but we create our own normal. You are capable of anything you want. No-matter where you are from or where your start line is, everybody starts somewhere. I don't want to just break the glass ceiling, I want to smash it into a million pieces." Congratulating her on the expedition, the Chief of the General Staff of the British Army, Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, said she was an “inspirational example of the grit and determination”.

Chandi joined the regular British Army when she was 27, having been part of the Army Reserves since she was 19. When she was 14, Chandi moved to a tennis academy in Surrey and at 16 she travelled to the Czech Republic where she attended tennis training sessions. Chandi's military duties have taken her to Nepal and Kenya and, most recently, to South Sudan, where she was deployed on a six-month UN peacekeeping tour. Chandi completed her first marathon when she was 18, since when she has also taken part in ultra-marathons across the Peak District and the Sahara desert, completing the Marathon des Sables - a 156-mile race across the Sahara Desert - in 2019.

References

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