UK Girl, 6, Becomes Youngest To Climb 13,000-Foot Mountain In Africa

A six-year-old girl from the UK has climbed a 13,600-foot mountain to raise money for the hospital that saved her life as a baby.

A resident of Wales, Seren Price, became the youngest person to climb Mount Toubkal in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

The six-year-old now plans to climb Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe, in an effort to raise money for Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Seren said that when she was a baby she had a "lump in my neck" and the hospital helped treat her condition which is why she is now raising money for it. Her father said the hospital saved her life when she was young as she was born prematurely with a haemangioma on her neck that affected her breathing.

Seren and her father Glyn Price flew to Morocco in August. With their guide, they walked for eight hours to Mount Toubkal base camp even as temperatures topped 40 degrees.

Mr Price said they reached the summit the next day. "It was a tough hike with narrow paths on slippy vertical scree," he told BBC.

"The heat was the biggest challenge... but once we got to the top it was brilliant. There were about 20 people there who had followed her story on social media, and they were giving her a big round of applause," he added.

On her training for the daunting climb, Seren confidently said she trained only for a week, her father laughed and corrected her saying it was much longer than that.

The father-daughter duo had been training for about a year which also included nighttime walks in a nearby national park. "We were able to replicate some of the tracks. Obviously, the weather wasn't the same, but the terrain was," Mr Price said.

This is not the first time the young mountaineer has broken a record. In 2022, she became the youngest person to complete the UK's three peaks challenge -- climbing the three highest peaks of Scotland, England and Wales -- in under 48 hours.

Now, the young climber has her eyes set on Mount Blac which she says she is excited to scale to "see the snow".

Mr Price, who also has a son said one cannot force children's passions. "I have a boy and I've tried to take him up the mountains, he's not interested - but Seren loves it."

When asked what makes her love climbing, Seren said: "I like spending time with my dad - and seeing the nice things when I'm at the top of the mountain."