The Everyday Adventure Podcast – Season 8, Episode 10

Marina LeGree: Empowerment and Adventure

In the final episode of Season 8, Nicki Bass speaks with Marina LeGree — founder and executive director of Ascend Athletics — about using adventure, movement and community to create spaces for women and girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

What began as an idea rooted in the mountains of Afghanistan grew into a organisation combining outdoor adventure, leadership development, mental wellbeing support and civic engagement. Marina shares how Ascend evolved from mountaineering expeditions and rock climbing programmes into a broader movement focused on confidence, resilience and access for women, even in the most testing contexts and environments.

Together, Nicki and Marina explore:

The transformative power of outdoor adventure and movement

Why “just starting” matters more than perfection

Leadership, confidence and learning through discomfort

How women support and uplift one another in challenging environments

Adapting purpose when circumstances radically change

Hope, resilience and continuing forward in uncertain times

The role of community, courage and everyday action

This conversation is deeply honest, inspiring and timely — especially for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world, uncertain about taking the next step, or searching for ways to create meaningful impact.

About Marina & Ascend:

Ascend Athletics co-creates and delivers holistic development programmes rooted in:

Adventure sport

Mental health and wellbeing

Leadership development

Civic engagement

Entrepreneurship training

Ascend works primarily with women and girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan, creating opportunities for confidence-building, community connection and personal growth through both outdoor and indoor programming.

Follow Ascend:

Instagram – @ascendathleticsngo

LinkedIn

Facebook

Key Themes & Takeaways

“Just start.”

Marina reflects on the importance of taking action before everything feels perfectly planned:

“Something has to be started… if you are paralysed at the start point, you’re missing everything.”

Confidence grows through experience

From trekking and rock climbing to leadership and entrepreneurship, Ascend’s work centres around helping women trust themselves and navigate uncertainty.

Access matters

Whether it’s access to mountains, movement, community, mental health support or opportunity, the episode explores how powerful it can be simply to create space.

Hope is built through people

Despite global uncertainty and immense challenges, Marina shares why seeing the impact on individual lives continues to fuel her work:

“If there’s a human being benefiting from what you’re doing, it’s worth doing.”

Follow the podcast and Nicki’s work:

Everyday Adventure Podcast Instagram

Resilience at Work

Nicki Bass on LinkedIn

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing it, leaving a review, or sending it to someone who might need a reminder that even in difficult times, hope, courage and adventure still matter.

“This isn’t just about physical access — it’s about creating spaces where people feel they belong.”

Will Behenna is an adaptive paddleboarder, accessibility advocate and founder of multiple initiatives focused on improving access to blue spaces across the UK including Inclusive Paddleboarding and The Beach Access Project. Through adapted equipment design, coaching, campaigning and community partnerships, he works to create more inclusive opportunities for people to enjoy the physical and mental benefits of water environments.

Growing up on the Cornish coast, Will developed a lifelong connection to blue spaces. After a spinal injury as a teenager left him a full-time wheelchair user, Will refused to let barriers keep him away from the water. He now dedicates his time to ensuring more people can experience the freedom, wellbeing and adventure that water environments can offer.

This episode explores:

What true accessibility in outdoor spaces really looks like

Why “independence” is such a powerful driver for adventure

The hidden barriers that prevent many people from accessing beaches and water sports

How inclusive design benefits everyone

The emotional impact of exclusion from blue spaces

Lessons from beach accessibility projects in Europe

The future vision for Hengistbury Head Outdoors as a leading inclusive watersports hub

How connection to nature encourages environmental stewardship

Will also shares the inspiring vision behind making Dorset the “Inclusive Blue Space Capital of the UK” through partnerships, community collaboration and innovative accessibility projects already underway.

This is a thoughtful and practical conversation about belonging, dignity and why designing outdoor spaces that welcome everybody matters to us all.

Find out more about Will and his work:

Inclusive Paddleboarding

Beach Access Project

Inclusive Paddleboarding on Instagram

Inclusive Paddleboarding YouTube Channel

Enjoyed the episode?

Thank you for listening to Season 8 Episode 9 of The Everyday Adventure Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who could use a little more adventure in their life :-)

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Instagram: @everydayadventurepod

Craig Mathieson is a polar explorer, motivational speaker and founder of The Polar Academy, a groundbreaking Scottish charity that helps young people build confidence, resilience and self-belief through adventure. He was recently awarded The Polar Medal in the King’s New Year’s Honours.

Craig has completed expeditions to both the North Pole and South Pole, including leading the first dedicated Scottish expedition to the South Pole in 2004. Having mentored a young person on a life-changing expedition to the North Pole two years later, Craig saw the extraordinary potential of these experiences and was determined that this would act as a catalyst to extend these opportunities. In 2013, the Polar Academy was born.

To date, the Polar Academy has worked with nearly 300 young people and their families. The programme deliberately seeks out “invisible kids”— young people who struggle with confidence, anxiety, bullying, bereavement or simply feeling overlooked. Over the course of an 18 month training programme, the teenagers on the programme prepare physically and mentally for an expedition to East Greenland, where they haul sleds across Arctic terrain and discover what they’re truly capable of.

Our conversation centres on Craig’s journey to founding The Polar Academy and the work it does to transform the lives of young people struggling with trauma, low confidence and mental health challenges. Craig speaks with honesty, humour and compassion as he shares stories from his own experiences at school, the inspiration that first sparked his dream of becoming an explorer and how that ultimately led him to create a programme that helps young people discover their own strength. We explore themes of belief, resilience, family support and the life-changing impact of nature as Craig reflects on why so many young people feel hidden and what it truly takes to help them thrive. From trekking across Greenland to searching for Yetis on the west coast of Scotland, this conversation is both moving and inspiring — a powerful reminder of what can happen when someone believes in you, before you believe in yourself.

Learn more about The Polar Academy:

https://www.thepolaracademy.org/

Facebook: @thepolaracademy

Instagram: @thepolaracademy

Thank you for listening to Season 8 Episode 7 of The Everyday Adventure Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who could use a little more adventure in their life :-)

To keep up to date with the latest news, follow us:

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