Experts on the Antiques Roadshow were stunned when a distant cousin of the Queen appeared on the show – and casually revealed she had amputated her own toes with a penknife during an ill-fated Arctic expedition.
Rosie Stancer went on the show to get a valuation for a first-aid kit from Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 Antarctic expedition.
In the episode to be screened on BBC1 tonight, she explained how it had been used to amputate the gangrenous toes of a stowaway.
Antique: Rosie Stancer pictured with a first-aid kit used by Shackleton
But she then confessed to expert Paul Atterbury that she had cut off two of her own toes without anaesthetic during a 2007 attempt to become the first woman to trek solo to the North Pole. ‘Needs must,’ she said simply.
Atterbury replied: ‘I stand in awe.’ To which Rosie said: ‘I still stand.’