3pm update

Frostbite forces polar woman to abandon trek

One of three British women bidding to set a polar trekking record has been airlifted from the arctic ice shelf with frostbitten feet, it emerged today.

The dangerous state of Pom Oliver's two infected big toes was detected on Sunday when a supply team met the expedition on day 47 of their walk to the north pole.

Doctors at a medical centre in Resolute Bay, a tiny community in northern Canada where the 50-year-old is recovering, said it was too early to know if she would escape any amputation. She has already lost one big toe nail.

Julian Mills, the base camp manager, said: "She's desperately disappointed.

"She was pushing herself into the pain barrier so as not to hinder the progress of the expedition."

Reaching the north pole would make the British women the first all-female team to walk to both poles, having reached the south pole in 2000 with two other women.

Frost injuries, where skin tissue freezes, tend to "creep up" on sufferers and Ms Oliver's may have started when the team was beset by a storm just seven days into the trek.

Blizzards made it impossible to erect tents, leaving the women exposed to -50C temperatures and gales reaching 50 knots.

Ms Oliver, a married building renovator and former film producer from Uckfield, Sussex, said the other two would make it without her.

Ann Daniels, 37, a mother of triplets from Whimple, Devon, and 35-year-old Caroline Hamilton, of central London, have also had frost injuries but managed to recover.

The team have travelled more than 85 miles, and have around 300 miles to go.

They are now moving more quickly as the terrain on the moving ice cap is becoming flatter and the weather warmer.

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