Mel Andrews
Mel Andrews (born 14 October 1980) is a British adventurer and dog-sled racer. She became the first British woman to finish Europe’s biggest sled-dog race, Femundløpet, on 5 February 2013. A month later she set a record as the fastest British rookie to finish Finnmarksløpet, the world’s longest eight-dog race.
As a teenager she was a skilled swimmer and worked as a beach lifeguard. At 17 she joined the army and later kept swimming. She rowed for City of Oxford Rowing Club, competing in the Women’s Eights Head of the River Race in London and other regattas. In 2004 she captained a Cambridge regatta team.
In 2009 she turned down a medical school place and left the Army Medical Corps to spend eight winter months wilderness camping with 20 sled dogs, exploring Jotunheimen in Norway. A Norwegian sled-dog magazine later published an article about her adventure.
In 2011 she raced seven stages of La Grande Odyssee in the French and Swiss Alps and represented Britain at the IFSS World Championships. In 2012 she appeared in Cow Prod’s 3D movie Mushers and in Animal Planet’s TV series Extraordinary Dogs.
In 2013 she moved to Norway with her husband, Nigel, training there and spending time in Andover, Hampshire. She owns a kennel of Alaskan and Siberian Huskies and co-owns Dogsledding Expeditions. She is a patron of Veterans in Action, a UK charity helping recovering British soldiers.
In January 2016 she began training in Norway for Finnmark 1000 km, but had to withdraw on day two due to health problems of her team.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:31 (CET).