Rosie Swale-Pope marked her 57th birthday by donning trainers, pulling on a backpack and leaving her pretty Welsh cottage to go for a run.

Five years, 20,000 miles and 53 pairs of running shoes later, she hobbled back on crutches with a fractured hip but an unbroken, and truly remarkable, spirit.

During her extraordinary (some might say fool-hardy) solo round-the-world run, she was shadowed by a pack of wolves in Russia, confronted by a naked gunman in Siberia and nearly froze to death in Alaska.

Running all over the world: Rosie Swale-Pope took up the challenge after losing her husband to cancer

In the end, it was both a bitter fight for survival and a vivid celebration of life - but it began because she found herself widowed and, for the first time in her life, alone.

Just months after losing her beloved husband, Clive, to prostate cancer in June 2002, Rosie decided to embark on a charity run to raise money awareness.

She says: 'I pulled out a map of the world and sat there trying to choose a destination for my run. Then the idea suddenly came to me. I thought: "I know, I'll run the whole world - it will be like a package tour on legs."'

So Rosie, a grandmother, began planning her adventure in meticulous detail.

'I was utterly heartbroken and this gave me something to do. I knew I couldn't just tear around the world on a whim. It had to be properly researched.'

First, she had to choose the route - 'A lovely little circle through Europe, Russia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, America, Greenland and Iceland. It was the most logical, though not the most comfortable, way around the world.'

Her preparations included learning six languages: Dutch, German, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian and Russian.

'I knew it wouldn't be any good to be stuck in the middle of a country and not be able to ask for food,' she says. 'I even managed to do a television interview in Russian - although I'm not sure how well they understood my answers.'

The daughter of an English Army officer and his Swiss wife, Rosie is what one might politely describe as a true English eccentric.

Rosie Swale-Pope marked her 57th birthday by donning trainers, pulling on a backpack and leaving her pretty Welsh cottage to go for a run.

Five years, 20,000 miles and 53 pairs of running shoes later, she hobbled back on crutches with a fractured hip but an unbroken, and truly remarkable, spirit.

Running all over the world: Rosie Swale-Pope took up the challenge after losing her husband to cancer

In the end, it was both a bitter fight for survival and a vivid celebration of life - but it began because she found herself widowed and, for the first time in her life, alone.

Just months after losing her beloved husband, Clive, to prostate cancer in June 2002, Rosie decided to embark on a charity run to raise money awareness.