Six years ago my mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, fortunately, the cancer was found in its early stages and following an operation to remove the cancer, followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy she made a full recovery. I was extremely grateful to all the medical and nursing staff for their care and expertise. I realised that the research on cancers over the past few years has resulted in treatments which have saved many lives and quite possibly the life of my mother!

After a time of convalescence, my mother and a friend, Sylvia Cooper, discussed establishing a local group for people who had suffered from this terrible disease with the objective of gathering together and enjoying life after their ordeal. The charitable club was then formed called 'Breast Friends' who meet monthly and where friends can gather together to enjoy the special events which are organised at the meetings.

Each member of the club has climbed their own mountains and in many cases, it was a very difficult and emotional time. My own experience made me realise the strain and worry of families who had suffered the same experience and over the years I have visited the club and presented and helped them with some of their events. I wanted to make a contribution.

One of my biggest passions is enjoying the great outdoors and going on adventures and I wanted to do something more challenging and combine this with raising funds for our local charity and Cancer Research. I therefore decided to climb my own mountain and was told of a great challenge in climbing Mount Toubkal, the highest mountain in the Atlas Mountain range in Morocco. The mountain is a challenging climb of 4,167 metres and I will be joining a small group in May to challenge the Mountian and hopefully raise some funds for my chosen charities.

I will be contacting friends and colleagues to raise as much money as possible for the deserving charities which I know will be well received by both Cancer Research and Breast Friends.