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Louise Minchin/Instagram
"We are out of the race but we are safe," the presenter told fans from a hospital bed
BBC presenter Louise Minchin has been taken to hospital after contracting frostbite during an Arctic adventure challenge.
The 57-year-old had been attempting to cycle 300 miles (483km) in three days in Canada's Northwestern Territories to raise money for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
But little over a quarter of the way, she and Guiness World Record holding endurance athlete Mimi Anderson were forced to pull out after enduring dangerously cold winds despite preparing for the sub-zero temperatures, the broadcaster announced on Friday evening.
"We are out of the race but we are safe, warm and being well looked after," Minchin told her Instagram followers from a hospital bed.
The two had been 14 hours into the Inuvik Weekend Warrior Fat Bike Challenge - a three-day cycle across frozen rivers, remote highways and Canada's Arctic wilderness - when they were forced to withdraw.
"We did around 140k in temperatures as low as -40C," the former BBC Breakfast host, 57, explained.
"When we got to this point both of us knew we were very dangerously cold."
She said the "combination of the temperature and wind meant despite having prepared as much as we could have it was a huge risk to go on".
Dave Benett/Getty Images for Women of the Year
"Big hugs," fellow presenter Susanna Reid (left) told Minchin (right)
Minchin added: "Turns out we were right to stop. We both have frostbite and are being looked after incredibly well looked after. At the moment we remain in good spirits."
She posted a video in which she and Anderson, 61, could be seen with her fingertips bandaged up.
March average temperatures in the Northwestern Territories range from -13C to -23C (8.6 to -9.4F) - but the region was particularly cold on Friday, dropping to -30C in places.
Wind chills were as cold as -36C, which can cause frostbite to set in in as little as 10 minutes. Extremities such as fingers and toes are particularly vulnerable.
Initial signs of frostbite can include numbness, pain, and skin appearing red or pale, according to the NHS.
However under prolonged exposure, symptoms can get worse to include:
- hard, frozen skin that can be white, blue or blotchy
- swelling and loss of feeling in the affected area
- blisters filled with blood or clear/milky fluid
- the skin turning black and hard as it starts to die (which may be harder to detect on black or brown skin)
Fellow presenters offered words of support after Minchin revealed her brush with the freezing cold.
"Big hugs," wrote Good Morning Britain's Susanna Reid, while former Blue Peter host Helen Skelton said: "What an achievement so far."
Meanwhile, Morning Live's Gaby Roslin commented: "Oh my word. Please take good care of yourself."
