Nurse tackles Everest but challenge continues

A nurse has scaled Mount Everest and plans to tackle more mountains to showcase how tough the profession is.

Rowena Rowberry, 34, a nurse and lecturer in nursing at the University of Derby, has ticked off the highest peak in the world in her challenge to scale the highest mountain in each of the seven continents.

Mount Everest was number four and she has three left to scale.

Speaking to the BBC minutes after she completed her descent, Ms Rowberry said: "I'm exhausted and a little bit broken but I'm just so glad to be back at Base Camp and back to safety."

She said she was aiming to raise money for the Royal College of Nursing Foundation and shine a light on the hardships of nursing.

Ms Rowberry, whose journey started in January 2024, is not planning to stop here.

She still aims to climb the Puncak Jaya in Indonesia, Denali in Alaska, USA and Mount Vinson in Antarctica.

She has already scaled Kilimanjaro in Kenya, Mount Elbrus in Russia and the Aconcagua in Argentina.

Celebrating with a can of beer and some pizza, Ms Rowberry said: "It felt very surreal... Everest has a lot up summits so you think you're nearly there and you turn a corner and you see more hills to climb.

"It was utterly gorgeous and the views were absolutely outstanding... I can't quite believe I've done it, it will take a few days to sink in.

"At one point there was just me and my [mountain guide] Sherpa at the top, we were the only two people at the highest part of the earth."

Her group of four climbers and Sherpas set off at 02:00 local time (21:15 BST) on Thursday and got about five hours sleep in total on the way up.

Ms Rowberry made it to the summit at 09:45 on Sunday and had about six hours sleep of sleep on the descent, finally hitting Base Camp just before 15:45 on Monday.

She said she had "never seen horizons that big" and could see into China from the top.

But it was not all plain sailing, despite a relatively decent climb, she battled back spasms on the descent.

"I feel battered and bruised, mentally and physically exhausted," she said.

"I really did struggle on the way down and if it wasn't for my amazing Sherpas who kept encouraging me... they were the real machine into making this happen.

"There's so much I've been through and I don't think I would have been able to do this if I hadn't had some of the qualities nursing has given me.

"I wanted to shine a light on the profession and show what we can do."

On her next challenge, Ms Rowberry said she "doesn't want to climb a flight of stairs never mind another mountain" at the moment.

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