A DETERMINED Hillingdon woman and carer is to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for the second time after a bout of amnesia on her first trip to the summit left her with no memory of the occasion.

Dee Cree, 53, of Barncroft Close, was trekking to the top of Africa's highest mountain in 2012 to honour her mother's memory.

Despite a severe knee injury she reached the crater rim of Stella Point (5700m), just 30-40 minutes from the celebrated signpost on the Roof of Africa – but afterwards had no recollection of it whatsoever.

“She’s got bad knees and they went on the very first day of the challenge, but she still kept going,” said Dee's friend of 25 years, Sue, for whom Dee cares, due to a spinal degenerative disorder. “She is such a determined individual.

“The doctor said ‘Your memory will come back’ but it never has. So, she said ‘I’m going to do it again, because I want those five hours back’.

“The reason she did it in the first place was that, in 2010, her mother died suddenly at Christmas in a house fire, and she never got to say goodbye. So, to her, the challenge was: 'I’m going to go somewhere high enough so that I can say goodbye to my mother’.”

Memory loss is associated with Acute Mountain Sickness, caused when climbers ascend too high too quickly. Poignantly, Dee is raising money and awareness for the Alzheimer's Society.

“I think she is Superwoman," said Sue. "To work the hours she does, then come back and look after me to do the things that I can’t do... to be honest I don’t know what I’d do without her. She is a tough cookie with a heart of gold.”

To sponsor Dee on her second trek to the peak of Kilimanjaro, visit https://www.justgiving.com/Dee-Cree2/