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places has made me appreciate the skills that I’d otherwise take for granted. Although communicating in Swedish remains a challenge!”


Into Antarctica After Australia, Penelope returned to Scotland to undertake locum work in the Highlands and Islands before heading back to Israel for volunteer work as a dentist. Then came Antarctica. After completing a


Masters in Community Dental Health in 2001, Penelope successfully applied to work for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) which is part of the National Environmental Research Council. She spent two years working there full-time based on the ship the RRS Ernest Shackleton, first for nine months then a second six-month posting. Patients there are mainly aged 25 to 35 and would often arrive at Penelope’s treatment room by skidoo. Dental work consisted largely of routine check-ups, fillings, preventive treatments, dental health education and the occasional broken tooth – but often only after each patient had painstakingly removed several layers of bulky Antarctic warm weather gear in order to sit in the dental chair. She says: “You work throughout the year ensuring that the scientists and support staff who will be based in the Antarctic are dentally fit. Training the over-wintering doctors on how to conduct emergency dentistry is another important part of the job. You also must make sure all the orders, supplies and equipment are on board before the ship sails from the UK.” One unique thing about this particular post


– other than being able to watch the Emperor penguins in her free time – was working and living with her patients. “That was a completely


different dynamic for me. If you place a questionable shade of composite, you then had to look at it over the breakfast table in the mess the next day,” she says, laughing. Penelope’s work with BAS earned her the


Polar Medal, presented to her by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace in 2009, in recognition of her contribution to polar research.


Beyond the limits Working in such remote and extreme environments has required Penelope to demonstrate more than just dental skills. “In the Antarctic, for instance, I had to learn how to assemble and wire together an X-ray machine and then take it apart again,” she says. “You certainly broaden your horizons and any perceived limits around your capabilities.” Among the most memorable challenges she


encountered in Antarctica were the occasions when she had to treat emergency patients who she didn’t know and hadn’t screened. She explains: “There were certainly cases where I was getting to the edge of my comfort zone and would have liked the reassurance of a colleague standing alongside me to check things over. But it wasn’t available, so you just had to get on with it. Luckily, technology is a big help – I could email photographs and radiographs to colleagues and access support and advice so I still felt part of a network of professionals.”


Travel sick Travelling is very much in Penelope’s make-up and she rarely feels home sick, always eager for the next adventure to begin. But no matter where she goes she always brings some favourite items including a “rather grotty” old insulated mug and a 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey


map of Glen Coe. She says she is “drawn to wild places that are untouched by man” and loves to ski and hike. For the last three years, Penelope has spent


five weeks annually in Tristan da Cunha, a volcanic island situated 1,510 miles south of St Helena, the nearest land mass. It is the remotest inhabited island in the world and it takes 10 days to reach from St Helena by fishing boat. “When I was in Antarctica, I often stopped off at Ascension Island and loved it, so asked about opportunities for practising there. I contacted the locum on St Helena and they offered me Tristan da Cunha.” A unique island and culture, it has a population


of just 267 people who share seven surnames that have changed little since Napoleonic times. Penelope and her daughter stay with the same family each year. “It’s a unique place,” she says. “It’s amazing experiencing how islanders live.”


What’s next? Of all the places she’s been, Penelope says Antarctica stands out due to the stunning landscape. “You feel humbled to be in a completely unspoiled part of the planet,” she says. But there are always more places to be


explored. “There are bits of Scotland I’m yet to get to, like Shetland and St Kilda. Also the Galapagos Islands. And Nepal. I’m studying for a diploma in Mountain Medicine and I’d like to work somewhere like that, with people who have a similar professional skill-set but also the same motivations in terms of experiencing wild places. “I’m always thinking about where I can go


next.”


Rowan Morrison is a writer based in Edinburgh


LEFT: PENELOPE (RIGHT) AND FRIEND LIZ HOMER NEAR THE BRITISH ANTARCTIC BASE. FAR LEFT: PENELOPE AND ELIKA ON TRISTAN DA CUNHA


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