Stephanie Bareford

Stephanie has been involved in ballooning her whole life. Since a young age, she has been a crew member for her father, David, and from the age of 15 she was co-piloting for him at hot air ballooning competitions. It was also at 15 that Stephanie decided she wanted to get her pilot’s license, and on her 16th birthday flew solo, making her the youngest person in the UK to fly solo.

Whilst at Plymouth University studying for her first degree, Stephanie, with the help of Angela Jones, formed the Plymouth University Hot Air Balloon Society. The society brought many young people in to the sport. Stephanie also encourages people into competition ballooning through her event, the New Beginnings Meet.

Stephanie started competing in 2012, with her first event being the 1st Junior World Championships in Lithuania, where she was the only pilot to represent Great Britain. She did then return to compete in the 2nd Junior World Championships in 2014, with her brother, Dominic, as her team mate, and she finished in 6th, and the highest female pilot. In 2015 Stephanie got her first podium finish in the British Nationals, finishing 3rd. This helped her qualify for the World Championships in Japan in 2016. Here she finished 20th out of a field of over 100, and again was the highest placed female pilot. This has all lead to Stephanie at the end of 2016 becoming the highest world ranking female pilot.

Stephanie has just finished her degree in medicine at Swansea University and will begin working as a doctor in Swansea in August.