TEACHER Iain Bennett was expecting a tough challenge when he set off on his Mission Antarctica trip.

The 38-year-old was looking forward to sailing round the notorious Cape Horn and spending two weeks helping to clear 1,000 tons of scrap from a Russian scientific station.

But his mission came to an abrupt end after ten days when he dislocated his elbow during a storm and faced four days of agony before it could be reset.

Now the biggest challenge Iain faces is getting back to teaching science at Ormesby Comprehensive School, near Middlesbrough. He has already had six weeks off work, and is having physiotherapy every day on his elbow in a bid to return to work before Easter.

"I thought I'd broken it at first and I was lucky in a lot of ways, particularly how everyone helped when it happened," he said.

Iain was one of eight teachers and four crew on board the 60ft sailing yacht when the storm hit on Christmas Eve, half-way between Argentina and Antarctica in the middle of Cape Horn.

He said: "We were on early morning duty and the wind had picked up to 45 to 50 knots.

"I was just moving from the covered area down towards the helm and I'd put my hand down when a wave hit the bar and twisted my body round and that was it. I felt something go."

Iain was given pain-killers and had to spend almost three days confined to his bunk before doctors at the Antarctic station at Bellinghausen could see him. But when they couldn't reset his arm he had to fly to Chile on board a Brazilian Hercules for hospital treatment.

New Year was spent in Santiago airport in Chile, trying to get through to his wife Helen and three children, David, 12, Katherine, ten, and Alistair, eight.

But he reckons it was worth it. "I loved every minute of the trip and I just wished I could have seen more of Antarctica but at least I managed to get there," he said. "I appreciate what Mission Antarctica did letting me go. I'm looking forward to telling the kids about it when I get back to work."