Ward was born in Galway, Ireland to a single mother named Maura. His family moved to Kilkeel, Northern Ireland soon after, and Ward largely grew up there. His family often subsisted on welfare during his childhood. Ward studied international economics at university in England, graduating in 2006.
Travel and career
After graduating from university in 2006, Ward began to travel. He initially flew to New York City and worked as a summer camp counselor in the United States for a brief period. He returned to Ireland and took part in a medical research experiment to earn more money to travel. He then travelled to Thailand where he taught English for a year before moving to Sydney, where he worked as a telephone sales representative. Dissatisfied with office work, Ward left his job and sought to make a living from traveling full-time. In 2010, Ward started a blog named "OneStep4Ward" to document his travels. By 2012, he had expanded this to a media company, earning money through ad revenue to fund his trips. By the end of that year, he was reportedly earning an average of $40,000 per month, working around 10 hours per week from his laptop to manage his staff and run a portfolio of websites. During this period, Ward based himself in Bangkok, Thailand, and also began investing in property. By August 2012, Ward had visited over 80 countries, and over 100 countries by the end of that year. In 2014, Ward was a founding member of the Professional Travel Bloggers Association, and on several occasions in that period, sources have identified OneStep4Ward as a top travel blog. By 2015, he had earned a total of around $1 million and had visited 152 countries. Over the course of his travels, Ward "broke an ankle in Korea, his leg in Thailand, had been in hospital about 20 times". Ward has recounted entering several countries through questionable or illegal means; it was reported that he "entered China illegally after a five-day trip up the Mekong River while stowed away in a cargo boat", that he was arrested after paying a smuggler to take him from Liberia to Ivory Coast during the Ebola epidemic, and that he was able to enter Yemen during an ongoing civil war by meeting a dignitary who "bribed Yemeni officials and I ended up hitching there on a cement cargo ship". Shortly after arriving in Angola, Ward witnessed a person being shot only a few meters away from his taxi cab, which quickly left the scene. In 2017, Ward visited his 197th and final nation, Norway, chosen because its proximity to Ireland made it convenient for friends and family to join him for the occasion., Ward claims to have earned around $1.5 million through his media company. Ward has since declared his intention to be the first person to visit every country, plus visit the North Pole, South Pole, and climb all of the Seven Summits. He has since finished 8th in the North Pole Marathon, and summited both Africa's highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro and Europe's highest peak, Mount Elbrus. Alongside this, Ward has also competed in the Marathon des Sables in 2019. Also in 2019, Ward helped his mother, who had previously been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, raise £14,444 to climb Mount Fuji in Japan, with the funds going towards the Cure Parkinson's Trust.
Philanthropy
Ward co-founded GiveBack GiveAway in 2015 with a view to 'Change Travel. For Good.' Since then, the GBGA has built schools, dormitories, playgrounds and clinics for developing communities in 10 countries.
