How being from Liverpool gave new Race Across The World contestant an advantage

A hypnotherapist from Childwall is about to tackle TV’s favourite travel challenge as she takes part in the latest series of BBC’s Race Across the World.

Margo Oakley teams up with her brother-in-law Mark who lives in London for the new series which begins on Thursday (April 2).

Together they go up against four other pairs racing more than 12,000km through eight countries – Italy, Greece, Türkiye, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia – with no phones or bank cards and a budget of less than £26 each per day.

Only one team can win as they compete to reach the finish line first and claim a £20,000 prize.

It’s the adventure of a lifetime, taking them to unfamiliar places and situations, but 59-year-old Margo says her natural Liverpool chattiness meant she never had any trouble breaking the ice with strangers wherever they went.

She admitted:

“I’m like a party starter so Mark and I are very different, he’s more staid whereas I’d get very distracted very easily on our trip, dancing, singing, and meeting people,”

“I’m typical of people from Liverpool – we just go for it and we could have a party in an empty bunker!

“I think they could have a Race Across the World cast just with people from Liverpool because we can make fun wherever we find ourselves. The people in this city are just the best and you have the best time with them.

“I did find some like-minded people across the world so there are lots of adventures we get up to.”

For Margo, there was never any hesitation in asking Mark to be her RATW partner when she decided to apply for the show.

They’d shared the loss of Margo’s big sister Julia, Mark’s wife, in 2022.

“I’ve got lots of friends and family who I could have thought about going with, my partner Ed or my two children, but I just had an intuition that it should be Mark so I asked him and it all took off from there.

“We’re wired differently, with different passions and interests, and of all the couples I think we are the two that know each other the least. We had a mutual respect and a loyalty because we were caring for my sister, but she wanted us to be friends, that was her last wish.

“For me it wasn’t just about us winning or even seeing the places, my main priority was me and Mark working together, getting to understand each other, honouring my sister and the challenge of our relationship under pressure.”

Although she watched previous series, Margo says nothing could have quite prepared her for the Race Across the World experience.

“I think I thought I’d picked up some tips but actually when you’re on the road you get so tired very quickly. I’m nearly 60 and Mark’s now 67, and you’re just constantly having to come up with new ideas and finding yourself in situations where you’re thinking, how are we going to make this work? Is there a different way out of this?

“There were definitely times where I wanted us to eat more and sometimes I wanted us to go somewhere and have a good rest for the night because we both got very tired very quickly.

“But the thing about the race that people might not realise is no matter what your attitude to competition, you have to race every single leg, and make every decision based on time, because otherwise you’d fall too far behind. 

“One wrong decision, one mistake and you could lose. In some of those places the transport is so unreliable it’s shocking, so for instance in Mongolia the bus only goes  once a week and if you miss that it’s over so you have to keep up and race whatever happens.”

With the series starting on Thursday, Margo’s excited to finally share the highs and lows of their adventure with family and friends at a watch party in Liverpool, as well as the show’s millions of fans.

“It’ll be like reliving the most amazing trip all over again,” she says. “But hopefully everyone will be invested in seeing it, not falling asleep like when you get your holiday photos out!”

Race Across the World is on BBC One on Thursday from April 2 at 8pm, watch it here.

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