Aberdeen woman's journey to the summit of Mount Everest

One Aberdeen woman has lived out her dream of reaching the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the first female from the Granite City to do so.

Mum-of-two, Lee Donald, set off on her trek to the highest peak on earth in April and safely returned back on Scottish soil on Friday.

She said she used her toughest moments in life as a driving power to conquer the highest point in the world.

The 42-year-old had previously battled an eating disorder, alcohol issues and depression.

After finding fitness and becoming a personal trainer, Lee explained she is thankful looking back that she was able to push through her darkest moments and achieve her dreams.

She said: “I am a firm believer that all the dark and hard times that I have been through and crawled back up from – like I said hitting that rock bottom and getting back into a place where I can just function – took an incredible amount of strength.

"So, I’m actually thankful for all those hardships along the way because I survived all of my hardest days and there I was on Everest, so that gave me the mindset and mental strength to keep pushing on.”

However it wasn't a smooth journey - from tackling rhinitis, asthma and frostbite she says it was the hardest experience she has ever had to endure.

The climb works in rotations, where the group will climb up to camp one and back, but Lee became poorly with rhinitis and wasn't able to continue with her second rotation.

This resulted in her staying inside a tent for two days and put her at risk of developing altitude sickness during the remainder of her climb.

However, Lee did not let this stop her and she pushed through to the summit.

Explaining how she had to push far beyond exhaustion, she said the last week presented the toughest challenge due to her asthma: "Every breath I was fighting for. Every single one.

"I had to be very careful not to push too hard because if I push too hard and have an asthma attack, there is no one coming to rescue me from the death zone.

“Camp four and above - anything above 8,000 metres - is called the death zone where life is just not possible to be sustained even with oxygen.

"You want to spend as little time as possible in that zone. It was a very very dangerous game I was playing.”

It was on the south summit just before Hillary's Step where Lee had her 'pinch me' moment.

She continued: "I can just remember the sun. We set off at 8 o'clock at night and reached summit at 6.25 in the morning.

“I just remember the little line across the horizon of the sun coming up. Between my mask and my hat I looked to the side and it was then that I grasped just how high we were.

“You could see all the clouds, all these mountains – massive mountains but they looked so small sticking through the clouds. I just remember thinking 'wow'.

“First of all, wow that looks incredible and second of all, wow that’s really scary because I’ve got a fear of heights.

“But I’ve come this far, it was a very big booster thinking ok I’m knackered but I’ve done this much, I know that I’m this close and I was like there’s no way I can stop now. I’m this close I can taste it.

"Although there was still a good hour there and back, that moment of looking to the side will forever stay with me.”

As soon as she stepped off the plane in Aberdeen, Lee said she was given a warm welcome by airport staff with flowers and gifts.

So far, Lee has raised over £6,000 for Friends of Anchor, who previously cared for her grandad.

Now, her goal is to rest and recover but in the future, she hopes to host talks and share her experiences in life to inspire and motivate others.

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