Samantha Fanshawe has something of a natural flair for being a citizen of the planet. She was born to British parents in Peru, and went to school in Pakistan for a few years before the age of 11.
After graduating from the University of Leeds with a joint honors degree in Maths and Biology she took some time out to see the word, including working in Sydney, Australia, before returning to the United Kingdom for two years in business development of corporate clients in the recruitment industry. She was then transferred to Singapore with the same company for a regional management role before moving to Penang in Malaysia and then Hong Kong.
Along the way she mastered the art of dragon boat racing, competing in Dragon Boat World Championships. Sam is an all-around sportswoman, being a runner herself, and also enjoys hiking, horse riding and mountain biking. It was while in Asia that she took up running a bit more seriously, starting with more than a dozen half-marathons, and then completing the Singapore Marathon, sprint triathlons, adventure races and ultramarathons such as the Hong Kong Oxfam Trailwalker, Hong Kong 100, the Gobi March and Mongolia Sunrise to Sunset.
Sam's involvement with RacingThePlanet started when she volunteered at the Gobi March 2005 in the Turpan Basin of Xinjiang Autonomous Region of far western China. Despite it being the hottest event on record, she fell in love with the spirit of the 4 Deserts races and soon came on board as a staff member a few years later.
Sam has been to more than forty RacingThePlanet / 4 Deserts events in a management capacity during her nearly 15 years with the company.
Javier ULLÉ RIVALDERÍA
Course Director
Spain
Javier Ullé loves sport and nature. Javier started running at 40 and since then has enrolled in a vast number of races, having successfully completed several marathons including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Amsterdam, Da Nang (Vietnam) and Prague Marathon. He loves to combine his passion for natural environments with his sporting endeavours and has participated in many marathons and ultras on the trails such as Madrid Oxfam Trailwalker, Alpine Madrid Marathon, Bastions (Pyrenees), 2X2 (Romania). Javier enjoys traveling and to date has had the chance to visit over 50 different countries - "Discovering new cultures, landscapes, and absorbing new senses makes me extremely happy." The Atacama Crossing 2025 is Javiers sixth time working on the course team with RacingThePlanet. He has joined us at RacingThePlanet: Georgia 2021 and 2022, the Namib Race (Namibia) 2021 and 2022, and the Atacama Crossing 2022 and 2023.
Tony BRAMMER
Volunteer Manager & CP Captain
United Kingdom
The 4 Deserts Club member Tony Brammer, from Manchester in the UK, is a man whose sense of humour is seemingly as great as his determination to finish as far back in the field as possible. The father of two and grandfather only set out to complete one race of the 4 Deserts Ultramarathon Series. He achieved that aim with the Sahara Race (Egypt) 2005 but carried on through the Atacama Crossing (Chile) 2006, the Gobi March (China) 2007 and The Last Desert (Antarctica) 2008. A company owner and consultant for Brammer Dixon, Tony is a man who sees the funny side of most things. The harder it gets, the more he's likely to call on his sense of humour to see him through. Behind the humour and self-effacing exterior is a man dedicated to helping others. As a 4 Deserts competitor, Tony raised money for a children's charity called SAFE at Last, which helps young people who run away from home. Tony is a dedicated 4 Deserts management team volunteer having been at more than thirty (!) races since his first time at the Sahara Race (Egypt) 2008. He is again an invaluable member of the team in the role of checkpoint captain and volunteer manager at the Atacama Crossing 2025.
Andrea ANDREWS
Operations Manager
Chile, Resident in Australia
Chilean Andrea Andrews is a clinical dietitian and a mum-of-two who lives in Australia. Her first RacingThePlanet event was in 2010 when she volunteered for the Atacama Crossing which she says is "the most spectacular race I have ever been a part of and most importantly in my home country". She came to that race with her husband who was competing. She never expected to have such an amazing time, and was hooked. She went on to volunteer in 2011 for the roving race in Nepal and in 2015 she decided to see what it was like from the competitor side and competed in the roving race in Ecuador which she describes as "an epic challenge and a humbling experience to get to complete this kind of race". In 2017, 11 months after having her beautiful baby girl, she completed the Patagonia roving race, wanting to break the stereotype that new mothers were not able to be adventurous. "It was an amazing challenge and my best race so far". She put her volunteering on hold when she had a second baby but avidly followed the races from her couch with massive FOMO and decided that she would definitely be joining the team again.
Andrea loved competing but is coming back this time as a member of the management team. Her favourite part of the race is the checkpoint and camp life, and the camaraderie formed by the volunteer team. We welcome her back to her fifth RacingThePlanet event - having volunteered twice, once at the Atacama Crossing, and twice as a racer. She is most looking forward to getting to know everyone and findimg out why they are here.
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