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Blue Peter presenters across the decades have been renowned for their crazy fundraising attempts, but Helen Skelton’s recent efforts put any of Peter Duncan’s escapades to shame. Not content with last year tackling a 78 mile, 24-hour ultra-marathon in the Namibian desert, Helen recently completed her most awe-inspiring challenge yet.

In February 2010, Helen finished an extraordinary 2,010 mile kayak down the Amazon river in aid of Sport Relief, and in the process set two Guinness World Records for the longest solo journey by kayak and the longest distance in a kayak in 24 hours by a woman.

Skelton, a 26 year old who grew up in Cumbria, spent six challenging weeks on the Amazon River battling heat exhaustion, sea sickness, aching limbs, a sunken support boat and a splintered kayak to reach the 2,010 mile target. Helen maintained a gruelling pace throughout the six week challenge, paddling on average through 60 miles of Amazonian waters a day with only one rest day a week - making this one of the toughest physical challenges ever undertaken in aid of Sport Relief.

Helen said: “It's been a massive adventure that's thrown up challenges most days. It's been tough but I've had enough highs to make it more than worthwhile. I'm very lucky to have amazing people in my life who've picked me up when things got hard and most importantly inspired me to carry on. My bottom is bruised, my shoulders are sore and the muscles in my neck are making it hard to differentiate between my head and my shoulders but to be honest I am proud of the war wounds. I reckon that you shouldn't shy away from things because they're tough or you might fail. Get stuck in and you never know where you might end up.”