Baku, January 26, AZERTAC

A British explorer who was trying to become the first person to cross Antarctica unsupported and unaided has died after falling ill just 30 miles (50 km) short of completing his mission, his wife said, according to Reuters.

Former army officer Henry Worsley, 55, was 71 days and 913 miles into his journey when he made a call for help after becoming unwell and was airlifted to hospital in Chile where he was diagnosed with bacterial peritonitis.

"It is with heartbroken sadness I let you know that my husband, Henry Worsley, has died following complete organ failure," his wife Joanna said in a statement.

Worsley, a father of two, set off in November on the crossing which was to commemorate 100 years since the 1915 ill-fated attempt to carry out the first crossing of the continent by his lifelong hero, British explorer Ernest Shackleton.