Kilimanjaro ascent for mum

A BUSINESSWOMAN from Plymouth has taken on the mammoth challenge of climbing to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro in memory of her mum and to raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity.

- MOLLY SEAMAN

Sarah Barton, who owns Queen B salon with partner Bethanie and lost her mum when she was just 16-years-old, is tackling the challenge of climbing the world’s highest free-standing single mountain above sea level in just nine days – completely alone.

Sarah decided that she would attempt to climb Kilimanjaro in dedication to her mum, Debra, who died after a lengthy battle with a brain tumour. Debra underwent multiple surgeries to remove the tumour, but it kept returning and she sadly passed away at age 39, when Sarah was just a teenager. Now, 27 years later, Sarah is honouring her mum and raising money for charity to help families in a similar situation.

Sarah, 43, is not only taking on one of the toughest challenges in the world, she is also doing it with her own health complications. Sarah’s partner Bethanie told The Herald: “Sarah has her own health problems, she doesn’t have the best set of lungs. So even Sarah doing this has been an absolute worry for all of our friends and family.

“At the moment, with her being near the summit, she’ll only have 50 per cent oxygen, which obviously Sarah has health problems herself with her lungs. After having pneumonia several times, she could be at risk of not having any oxygen as well as all that altitude sickness.”

Bethanie also said that Sarah “hasn’t even done any training” but added: “Although she didn’t do training, she also isn’t silly, she looks into everything, made sure she had all the equipment she needed.

“Sarah wanted to actually do a challenge and jumping out of a plane to her would have been fun, but Sarah hates walking, hates walking. So this is a real challenge for her.”