YEAR 7 pupil Eleanor Bowden is taking on the challenge of climbing the height of Mount Everest on her stairs at home.

Eleanor attends Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School, and is undertaking the challenge to raise money for the Woodland Trust.

A total of 3,762 flights of stairs need to be climbed to reach the target of 5.5 miles, and so far Eleanor has completed more than 1,500 flights, the equivalent of 2.3 miles.

Eleanor has raised £146 towards her £250 target, and if you would like to sponsor her visit justgiving.com/fundraising/eleanor-everest-challenge.

She said: “It started off as one vertical mile, just for me, to improve my fitness level and to keep me healthy during lockdown.

“I thought this will be fun, and it shouldn't be too hard. I'll have it done soon and I can stop if I want to.

“After a week of climbing 38 flights a day I realised it was going to be a lot harder than I had originally thought.

“After I had finished at the end of May I took a look at justgiving because my friend was doing a challenge too, rowing [the equivalent distance] across the English Channel on her dad's rowing machine.

“She was doing really well, and it made me think about my own challenge.

“I talked about it with my dad and we came to a decision; I would set myself the challenge to climb the height of Mount Everest in stairs by the middle of August.”

Eleanor’s justgivig page is donating money to the Woodland Trust.

She said: “The Trust is an amazing charity that plants, restores, protects and does research into our valuable woodlands.

“Our trees are the lungs of the earth, providing the oxygen we need to breathe and taking out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

“Global warming is getting worse and we need our trees to help protect our planet - and us, too.

“This charity not only supports the world around us, but the animals and people in it too.

“It would be amazing if you could consider donating. It is a great cause to support and I would be so grateful to you for supporting my challenge.”