who is maria

In 2003, life took Maria to Dubai, where she took up a post as a flight attendant at Emirates Airlines. She enjoyed life as cabin crew and VIP Flight Attendant for the Dubai Royal Airwing. Then, in April 2005, she took a fateful flight to the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. Maria witnessed extreme poverty in the slums of Bangladesh, which changed her outlook on life. Maria knew she had to step out of her comfort zone, and reinvented herself as an athlete, an adventurer, and a mountaineer.

She became the first Portuguese woman to summit Mount Everest and is also the first Portuguese woman to the North Pole and the South Pole. She has 8 Guinness World Records for running ultra marathons and Ironman Triathlons, despite having no formal background in sports.