UPDATE

There are five weeks to go and panic mode is setting in. Am I fit enough, have I got the right equipment, have I got the right attitude and am I taking this seriously? When everyone is shivering around me I have to think 'No this isn't cold, I am not feeling the cold, I am not cold, I am quite warm really - gulp'

The team has started exchanging emails about equipment and how fit we all are. The girls are trying not to read what the boys say as they seem to be superfit with the most technically advanced equipment plus millions of business sponsors. The girls are worried about contact lenses and earrings and looking cool in their goggles and balaclavas. One of the girls is a BBC reporter who will be filming us falling off the sledges, trying to separate fighting huskies and saying how we feel without using foul language. This has all the potential of yet another 'make or break my career' TV show like 'Big Brother' or 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here'. We could call it 'I'm Bloody Freezing, Give Me a Brandy!'

On the sponsorship front, my colleagues at GMTV where I work, have done me proud.

I have raised almost £600 and most people have dug really deep into their pockets to give a very generous donation. So many have come up and asked me about the challenge and wished me luck.