Jo’s inspiring book HOLDING ON is not just an enthralling account of mountaineering and polar achievements; it is a powerful and emotional story of love and survival against the odds.

In 2005 Rob and Jo Gambi became the first married couple to achieve the ultimate adventurer’s ambition when they climbed the ‘Seven Summits’ (the highest mountains on all seven continents) and skied to both the North and South Poles. Rob is also the first Australian and Jo the first female to achieve this feat.

What makes their story even more remarkable is that they achieved all this while Rob was in remission from his second bout of cancer. Having been warned that his cancer could recur, Rob and Jo both left their jobs in order to spend as much time together as they could and embarked on what was to become an incredible adventure. In spite of setbacks and facing death high in the Himalayas, they persevered and fulfilled their dreams (while unwittingly setting a string of records). They have experienced and endured more together in recent years than most couples would in a lifetime, overcoming illness and living with an intensity that few people will ever know.

In 2005 Jo entered the Guinness World Records as the woman with the fastest time to climb the ‘Seven summits’ and she is now the only English woman alive to have climbed Everest’s more difficult and daunting North Ridge. Jo’s inspiring book is not just an enthralling account of mountaineering and polar achievements; it is a powerful and emotional story of love and survival against the odds.