After a life-changing trek to the North Pole, Anna Culpeck just could not see herself in a desk job.

The 55-year-old adventurer, of Roundhill Crescent, Brighton, has brought her love of the great outdoors to the office - by running a dog-walking service.

Anna was a hotelier but was so taken with the cold climate and bitter conditions during her three-week trip in April that she decided to abandon her profession in favour of the great outdoors.

Anna, who has a 28-year-old daughter, said the decision to go to the North Pole was made on a whim.

She said: "I wanted to have an adventure - do something a bit mad."

She became inspired by Surrey-based polar explorer Tom Avery, who has been her mentor.

Her training involved hours of walking with sticks and dragging tyres along Brighton seafront - which raised a few eyebrows.

She said: "The best line I got was from a group of old men when one of them said to the other She can't even afford a dog'."

After flying to Russia, Anna took an Antonov 74 plane to her final destination before donning her skis and trekking across 12 to 14 nautical miles of ice a day.

She was joined by companions from India and the United States. They negotiated open water and pulled a sled over thigh-high ice ridges.

Anna raised £2,500 for the Martletts hospice at Hove and donated other funds to the Prince's Trust, Tom Avery's charity.

She said: "It was the most exhilarating, exciting and hardest thing I have ever done. Pulling 40kg of personal stuff, tents, food and other equipment. We had to consume 6,000 calories a day to get through it."

Once she had recovered, Anna began to re-evaluate her occupation as owner of Fyfield House, a hotel in New Steine, Brighton.

She sold up and decided to choose a life outdoors more in keeping with her polar adventure and her childhood growing up in Switzerland.

She said: "I couldn't stand working indoors any more so when the dog walking franchise came along I took the opportunity."

Now Anna spends her days working with about eight dogs for The Dog Walking Company and loves it.

She can be at Lancing Ring one day, the coast at Seaford the next, and Abbots Wood, near Hailsham, the day after.

She said: "I actually prefer it at this time of year. I'd like it to be colder. I'm hankering after some snow. I'm always finding new walks and this year I'm going to settle down with the business.

"But I've already got the next adventure in my head. I think I'm going to cross Greenland in 2008."