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Dwayne Fields, the first black Briton to reach the north pole: ‘I spotted this polar bear stalking us’

A familiar face on Countryfile and other TV shows, Fields escaped being shot when he was barely out of his teens. Now 37, he’s determined to keep exploring the world – and open it up for young people

In 2005, Dwayne Fields found himself staring down the barrel of a gun in east London. The explorer, who in 2010 would become the first black Briton to reach the north pole, had got himself into a very different, but still extreme environment. Now a presenter on Countryfile, he had gone to a neighbouring housing estate to demand the return of his motorbike, which had been stolen by boys he recognised. “Walking on to someone else’s estate is the stupidest thing you can do. But I was blinded by anger and frustration.” While negotiating the bike’s return, Fields found himself in a physical confrontation with a man who pulled out a gun. “Before I could say, ‘You don’t have to go that far!’, I heard the click.” The man had fired twice. But for some reason the gun jammed – and Fields escaped with his life.

All these years later the experience has not left Fields. Now 37, he still feels “phantom pains” in his stomach where he anticipated an entry wound would be. “It’s something I’ll never forget,” he says. It was not a Damascene moment, but the night he was almost shot – and the paranoia he felt in the days following – was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3GxTOIX
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