A YORK woman is preparing to climb one of the highest mountains in the world for charity this summer.

Rachael McCool, of Heslington, will be part of a British team setting out to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in August, to raise money for a children’s charity.

Rachael completed a psychology degree at the University of York, and now works as a research assistant at the York Health Economics Consortium.

She said: “Climbing Kilimanjaro will be the experience of a lifetime, provided my legs don’t fall off and my lungs don’t explode en route.

“It’s the kind of thing you put on your ‘bucket list’ with no intention of actually doing it, but when I saw the opportunity to do it in conjunction with raising money for what I believe to be a very worthwhile charity, there was no doubt in my mind it had to be done.”

The team will raise money for the Child’s i Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping abandoned babies in Uganda, and last year’s team raised more than £10,000 for the cause.

Rachael said: “I’ve spent the past 24 years avoiding any excess exercise, so this will all be a bit of a shock to the system. I ride horses five days a week, and have even started running some mornings.

“The altitude is probably my biggest concern, as you cannot prepare for it and there is no way of knowing how you will be affected on the mountain.”

Rachael is now planning to climb hills and mountains in the UK in preparation for the trek, and is hoping to raise £1,000 at justgiving.com/RachaelMcCool

Lucy Buck, founder of the Child’s i Foundation, said: “I’ve been completely blown away by the commitment of our supporters who are climbing Kilimanjaro in aid of the foundation, and we hope they’ll be able to see for themselves the change their money is making to the lives of babies.”

Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa at 19,341ft above sea level.