Ready to tackle Mt Kilimanjaro

The 27-year-old former Queensbury School, Dunstable, pupil, who works for children’s services at Luton Borough Council, will be leaving for Tanzania later this month to scale Mount Kilimanjaro, which at 19,341ft is Africa’s highest peak.

Annabelle, of Lowther Road, Dunstable, is funding the £2,800 cost of the trip herself and has already passed her fundraising target of £1,000 for Facing Africa, a charity that helps victims of the disease noma, an infection which causes terrible facial disfigurement and is often fatal.

“I’d wanted to something like this for a long time, but when I saw the celebrities climbing Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief I thought, ‘If these people can do it, I can do it.’”

The Peak District and Snowdownia have provided Annabelle with her training terrain, with friends and her boyfriend Matt often joining in to keep her company.

And while she’s got her fitness up to scratch, the one thing she can’t prepare for is altitude sickness.

“No-one knows if they’re going to be affected by it,” she said. The effects can be minor or extreme, which would mean you have to come down straight away as it can kill you.”

The part she’s looking forward to most, of course, is reaching the summit.

“You set off at midnight so that you reach the top as the sun comes up. It will be awesome,” she said.

> To sponsor Annabelle, click the ‘Donate Online Now’ button at www.facingafrica.org, select the first option when asked whether you are sponsoring a competitor and enter Annabelle’s full name and ‘Kilimanjaro Climb Sept 2011’.