Oliver Slow
BBC News
A six-year-old girl has climbed the highest mountain in North Africa, raising money for the hospital that saved her life when she was a baby.
Seren, from Carmarthenshire, is the youngest girl to climb Mount Toubkal in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, her father Glyn said.
The pair next plan to climb Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe, as part of efforts to raise money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
“When I was a baby, I had a big lump on my neck and they helped me,” Seren said.
Seren and Glyn flew to Morocco in mid-August, traveling from Marrakesh to a village at the bottom of the Atlas Mountains.
With their guide, Glyn said they made an eight-hour walk in temperatures of more than 40 degrees to Mount Toubkal base camp, where they spent the night, before leaving early the next morning.
They reached the summit the next day, which Glyn described as “a tough hike with narrow paths on slippy vertical scree”.
“The heat was the biggest challenge… but once we reached the top it was brilliant. There were about 20 people there who had followed her story on social media, and they were giving her a big round of applause,” he said.
Asked how long she had trained for the trek, Seren said “a week”, before Glyn laughed and said: “I think it was a little more than a week.”
He said they had been training for about a year, which included nighttime walks up Pen y Fan in Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, also known as the Brecon Beacons.
“We were able to replicate some of the tracks. Obviously, the weather wasn’t the same, but the terrain was,” he said.
Seren is raising money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital, which her dad said saved her life when she was young, operating on her when she was born prematurely and had a haemangioma on her neck that affected her airways.
In 2022, Seren became the youngest person to complete the UK’s three peaks challenge in under 48 hours, and next year, she has plans to climb Mont Blanc with her dad.
Glyn said it would involve some winter training, including in Scotland.
Seren said she was excited to tackle Mont Blanc, particularly “seeing the snow”.
Glyn, a teacher, is an avid mountaineer but said you cannot “force” children’s passions.
“I have a boy and I’ve tried to take him up the mountains, he’s not interested – but Seren loves it,” he said.
Seren asked what she likes most about climbing: “I like spending time with my dad – and seeing the nice things when I’m at the top of the mountain.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjrdpn3q3w2o
