Name: Kate Rawles
Age: 53
Lives: Cumbria, UK
Rides: Trek 5200, Marin East Peak, 28-year-old Bridgestone steel tourer. Was ridingan Alves custom-built touring bike but it ended up in the Glasgow Transport Museum!
Website: www.outdoorphilosophy.co.uk
Twitter: @CarbonCycleKate

What are you proud of?
Standing up for the environment, sustainability, and other species' right to live here too. Finishing The Carbon Cycle book and - astonishingly - getting it published. My capacity to drink good malt whisky. The times when I feel really, really alive and actually do live in the moment rather than just intending to. Laughing a lot.

What have you done?
Cycled from Texas to Alaska along the spine of the Rockies, exploring climate change. Got excited by the idea of using adventurous journeys to raise awareness and inspire action on 'big picture' environmental issues. Sailed through the North Atlantic Gyre exploring ocean plastic pollution. Given lots of slideshow talks, written lots of articles and a book. Was a university lecturer, off and on, full and half-time, for nearly two decades. Now fully free-range.

What are you scared of?
Dentists. Looking back at my life aged 90 and thinking, 'oh if only I had…' Having to go to Ikea and then somehow getting lost and stuck in the kitchen equipment aisle. Email backlogs. Losing fitness completely, and never being able to get it back.

What are you up to?
Planning an 'adventure plus' environmental awareness-raising bike ride, to start December 2016. The Life Cycle will take me from Costa Rica to Cape Horn, criss-crossing the Andes and exploring biodiversity - what it is, why it matters, what's happening to it and, above all, what can be done to protect it. Currently hunting for the perfect Life Cycle bike, and a new publisher! And trying to learn Spanish.