A BRAVE woman from Suffolk who joined forces with two friends to take on a gruelling 360-mile race across the Arctic Ocean is celebrating after finishing the epic adventure.

A BRAVE woman from Suffolk who joined forces with two friends to take on a gruelling 360-mile race across the Arctic Ocean is celebrating after finishing the epic adventure.

The Pink Lady Polecats - Sam Eve, 26, from Felixstowe, Tori James, 23, from Wales, and Felicity Aston, 27, from Kent - are the first female team to ever complete the Scott Dunn Polar Challenge.

The triumphant trio finished the quest just before midnight on Thursday, reaching the 1996 position of the North Magnetic Pole because the pole's current position is in the ocean.

They came in sixth of the 16 teams racing to the pole following a sprint finish, which saw them pass two other male teams.

The girls took just 13 days to finish the race, covering an average of 27 miles a day across treacherous sea ice and running the risk of encountering Polar Bears.

And to celebrate, the exhausted trio unfurled a Union Jack flag, which Ms Aston had taken to the South Pole on a previous expedition.

The team took on the challenge to raise awareness and funds for charities Breakthrough Breast Cancer and The British Schools Exploring Society, where both Ms Eve and Ms James work.

They have so far raised more £15,000 for the two charities.

Upon finishing, Ms Aston said: "Our first emotion is relief that we haven't let any of our many supporters back home down, relief that all the money pledged for charity will be safely in the bank and relief that after a year of training and preparation we have made it - all three of us.

"Tori James is the youngest woman ever to complete the Polar Challenge race. We are quite exhausted as we made a conscious decision to only sleep for one hour in the last 36 hours of the race because we wanted to pass two other teams we could see ahead of us."

Ms James added: "We want to tell the world how we feel but will have to wait for the plane to pick us up and takes us back home. I'm not sure how we are going to contain ourselves.

"Celebrations will start with a hot shower and a fresh set of clothes followed by a delicious meal."

The record-setting team are due back in the UK on Monday.