For several years Emma Pontin worked in the City of London, smartly dressed and doing daily battle with the London Underground.Then, aged thirty two, she embarked on a completely new career as an ocean-racing yacht skipper and instructor.

But hours before the start of a transatlantic yacht race in 2006, Emma took a phonecall that would dramatically change her life once more. She had invasive brest cancer. She had to return home immediatly for a life saving mastectory, and over the coming months she endured debilitating chemotherapy and radiotherapy, followed by a second mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Throughout her ordeal shecontinued to sail, race and instruct,with the mind set that if she could still sail then she was still alive. She did indeed skipper in that transatlantic race, just a year after her diagnosis, and then in the infamous Sydney to Hobart race. She continues to battle the elements, as she has battled her cancer, and she draws insperation from the sea in beating off her most threatening adversary.