An Aberdeenshire woman has been reunited with her fellow Arctic explorers after 25 years for a BBC TV series.
Reunion Hotel is hosted by Alex Jones and brings people back together at a hotel in North Wales.
Karen Bradburn, 64, who lives in Banchory, was part of an all-female relay mission to the North Pole in 1998.
She and 19 other women answered an advert in the paper to journey across the land in relay teams from Arctic Canada to the Polar North.
Her group, Team Bravo, had not reunited since fate brought them together to face one of the toughest challenges.
The team included Mrs Bradburn, now retired, Rose Agnew, in her 70s who lives in London, and Emma Golden, in her 40s, a teacher who lives in Devon.
A fourth member, Kate Chappell, who lives in Wiltshire, hadn’t seen the others in more than 25 years.
‘We went through something really special’
However, the show’s producers were able to track her down and bring the four women together for a reunion unlike any other.
Mrs Bradburn, who has now settled into retirement with her husband of 33 years Nigel, was initially scared when she first arrived at the hotel.
She had “an inkling” the team had managed to track down Mrs Chappell and was amazed they were able to find her using only basic information the other women had given.
Mrs Bradburn said: “It was a weird day because they interviewed us all separately at the start, so everyone was kept apart from one another.
“Rose, Emma and I eventually met up and they weren’t too sure what was happening but I suspected that they had in fact found Katherine (Kate).
“It was quite nerve-wracking to know that she was in the building because after everything we have gone through as a team and the bond we had on the ice, to meet up again and share our memories, was a big deal.”
Having finally reunited the women reminisced about their adventures and what they had achieved all those years ago.
Mrs Bradburn recalls each of them had specific jobs such as cutting ice, which she was in charge of, cooking and setting up the tent.
Team Bravo reunited after 25 years.
Mrs Chappell was in charge of the cooking with Mrs Bradburn, noting she was not a fan of the dehydrated food that was provided.
She was also the joker of the group and was able to keep the women’s spirits up on the particularly tough days out on the ice when very little was offered in terms of scenery.
Mrs Bradburn described her as “the entertainment” throughout the expedition and during the reunion was able to recall details that the others had forgotten.
“She’s the fourth cog and we all bounce off each other about what we all remember and things like what we used to say to each other and so it was lovely to have that chat.
“We went through something really special and you can’t forget it, the whole experience I look back on with fondness.
“In my job, I use to fly over it on the northerly routes and I used to look out the window in awe at what we had done, although I would not like to go back now, it would be very different.”
The reunion appears on episode three of Reunion Hotel, which airs on tonight on BBC2 at 8pm.
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