ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD Emily Watton was determined to go mountain high for her lovely mum and Maggie’s Oldham which has been her rock since being diagnosed with breast cancer six months ago.

After seeing what a fantastic place is it during a visit there with mum Andrea Hawker, Emily vowed to raise money for the centre which offers a huge amount of much-needed support to cancer sufferers.

Inspired by her intrepid dad Rick Watton – who has previously tackled the Three Peaks in 24 hours for The Christie - the Hey with Zion primary pupil, from Waterhead, asked to follow in his footsteps.

Knowing the enormity of the challenge Rick tried to “barter” his determined daughter down to one peak but she insisted on two!

And this weekend Emily, two friends Sophie Dervan and Emma Cadman, both 11, and cousins Oscar Watton, 11, and Flynn Watton, nine – chaperoned by their dads – bravely battled the driving rain and relentless winds to climb England’s highest mountain, Scarfell Pike and all 1,085 metres of Snowdon.

Described by Rick as like “going to hell and back” he said nothing could have stopped these incredible youngsters from reaching the summits in such brutal conditions but many things nearly did.

Torrential rain on Saturday as they camped out over night meant they were soaking wet before they started, Emily was ill during the night and hardly slept and horrendous weather as they ploughed up Scarfell meant they had to seize on every fibre of their being to carry on.

“This has been in the planning since February and we’ve done a lot of training but most of it was in lovely sunny, warm weather so we just weren’t prepared for it to be like this,” said keen walker Rick, aged 44.

“If it had been for any other reason we would have got back in the van and driven home. The only thing missing was Noah and his Ark.

“The rain was just driving into our faces on the way up Scarfell. The kids needed a lot of encouragement half way up and Emily had been sick on the Friday night – too much over-indulgence, nothing sinister – so she was tired and fed up. But she just kept thinking of why she was doing it and it kept her and the others going.”

Hours later than planned after packing up sopping tents and clothes they didn’t arrive until 10pm in Snowdonia where they had luckily booked beds in a bunk house for the night.

Rick said he expected some very weary and miserable kids the next morning but he was amazed when they said they were raring to go.

“Everyone was in high spirits and it was like the day before had never happened,” said Rick.

“They were all bouncing off each and excited. We set off and it was nice and warm and we thought there’s no way it could be as bad as yesterday. How wrong we were. Half an hour later the weather came in and poured down as bad, if not worse than the day before.”

“In a practice run we’d done it in three-and-a-half hours. We just put our heads down and got on with it. We did it in two-and-a-half hours!”

Buoyed by a rendezvous with Andrea and the other mums – who were travelling to the top by train – their hopes were almost dashed when it was announced the service looked likely to be cancelled due to the weather.

But luckily they were already chugging their way up and made it for a joyous reunion and much deserved celebration.

“It was all pretty emotional when they got there,” added Rick.

“Especially when they saw the state of the kids and heard about what they’d been through. Everyone was just so happy and pleased they’d done it. It was an incredible feeling.

“It took us two hours to get back down, still in the rain, and 10 minutes after getting on the minibus the sun came out.

“It really was an incredible achievement. For them to have done it in those conditions, it was a testament to the kids’ immense attitude. You hear all this bad stuff about kids these days and about staying in and playing on their X-boxes but this was truly inspiring and they all loved it.”

Their epic efforts has so far raised a staggering £3,600 with more pouring in, including a £600 donation from Siemens, where one of the dads works, and £20 from a fellow Snowdon trekker who was wowed by their fantastic quest.

Andrea, aged 46, who had surgery at North Manchester General Hospital and chemotherapy at Royal Oldham Hospital, is recovering well and about to start radiotherapy.

“It was a shock was Andrea was diagnosed and totally out of blue,” said Rick.

“The support from Maggie’s and the staff has been amazing and Emily just wanted to do something to say thank you to them.”

If you’d like to make a donation to Emily’s cause you can do so at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/andrea-hawker1.