Mark Hannaford

Author Archives: Mark Hannaford

Mark Hannaford is the founder of World Extreme Medicine, the global network delivering world-leading medical training and expertise in the world's most extreme environments.

Mark’s journey has been inspiring, which has changed lives and continues to provide urgent medical care in the world’s most extreme environments.

He has run expeditions in all five continents, traversed the ancient trade route of Ethiopia’s Amhara tribe, completed the first descent of the Kuiseb River in the Namib Desert, and was recently honoured by the prestigious Explorer’s Club of New York as ‘one of the 50 people changing the world’.

In 1996 Mark set up Across the Divide, an adventure challenge expedition company that enabled tens of thousands to experience the thrill of being part of an expedition. Crucially this opened up the means by which charities could offer places on these expeditions to fundraise, and since then, Mark’s company has facilitated the raising of £103M/$132M for a multitude of UK charities.

Ensuring medical support was available for expedition participants brought home to Mark the urgent need for medics to be trained in the particular challenges of providing care in extreme environments. In 2002 Mark set up World Extreme Medicine, a global platform that has since trained over 20,000 medics in extreme medicine.

Mark’s pioneering leadership has meant that World Extreme Medicine is now regarded as a medical sub discipline with a global community of 250,000 practitioners, experts, and leaders working together to deliver urgent care outside normal medical environments - from outer space and the deepest oceans to remote deserts and worlds highest mountains tops.

However, climate change, political upheaval, the pandemic, and war mean we are now facing far more extreme environments. In response to this, Mark and his team made the extraordinary commitment to train another 20,000 medics in the next 10 years to meet this new reality.

He wants to widen access to extreme medicine so that every medic has the opportunity to apply its teaching in the field, in their practice, in their roles, and in their lives - for the benefit of society as a whole.

Mark’s leadership has also delivered the first MSc in extreme medicine taught at Russel Group University of Exeter, the world’s only extreme medicine annual conference now in its 11th year, and an academy that provides access to training courses and videos from the world’s experts.

In recognition of his commitment to extreme medicine, in 2021 Mark was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Science by the University of Exeter.

“Mark has a global view, credibility and comes with an army of people - the best in their fields - who can make change happen.”

Michael Reed Barratt (MD) NASA Astronaut
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