I'm Laura — and I believe adventure is for everyone.

Born in 1993 and the youngest of four sisters, I grew up in the English countryside with the occasional family trips to South Africa to see my Aunt. I left home at eighteen to travel, taught English in Mexico on a TEFL qualification, worked on a government jaguar conservation project, and picked up Spanish along the way.

In 2014, rather than fly home, I found my way onto a 38ft trimaran and sailed the Atlantic with two blokes and a cat called Cuba — two months at sea, the night shift at the helm, and a week pinned down in the Azores by a storm. In 2016 I cycled 7,000km across South America without a penny, fundraising for Operation South America and relying entirely on work-for-food and the kindness of strangers. In 2018 I led the world-first descent of the Essequibo River in Guyana with an all-female team.

In 2017 I appeared on the cover of British Airways' High Life magazine alongside Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Tim Peake, and my husband Ed Stafford, credited simply as "The Adventurer". I'm an ambassador for the Children's Air Ambulance and International Justice Mission, and my mission has never really been about the map — it's about showing that ordinary people, with fear, doubt and full inboxes, can commit to something huge and see it through.

Between expeditions I tell stories in schools and to companies, and freelance as a fundraising coordinator and program logistics manager. In 2023 we swapped Leicestershire for Costa Rica, where I live with Ed and our four children.