A COURAGEOUS 11-year-old has proved she would scale any height to support her valued school friend.

So with her family’s help, dedicated Holly Nolan set out to ‘climb’ the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, on a unique mercy mission fundraiser.

And Holly, a member of Sale Harriers, North West Pentathlon Hub and Glossop Swimming Club succeeded in her gruelling endeavour by climbing the mountain’s equivalent height up the stairs of her three-storey Stalybridge home... all 8,848m of it!

In all, the youngster, a Hulme Grammar student, and her sister Olivia, 15, who supported her challenge, climbed up both flights of stairs 1,702 times.

Her proud mother Johanna said: “Originally, Holly and Olivia were going to do the climb over three days.

"However, they did 202 flights of stairs on Friday and commenced the climb of the remaining 1500 flights of stairs the following day at 7.30am, finishing at 5.15am on Sunday morning.”

Holly’s friend, Freya Norman, from Denshaw, who is 12-years-old, has relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. She was first diagnosed in November 2016 and finished treatment in April 2019.

After being off treatment for just over a year she relapsed and is now undergoing chemotherapy once again at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

But learning Freya was ill again, Holly wanted to help her and together with her father, Ged, dreamed up the idea to summit Everest.

Freya’s mum Emma said: “I wanted to raise money for Ward 84 because the care provided to Freya by the staff and doctors on the ward meant the world to Freya and her family.

“We were totally gobsmacked when we heard about Holly’s idea to raise money. Her enthusiasm and stamina throughout the challenge was amazing. I can’t image how hard it must have been, for her and her sister Olivia, but they carried on regardless and smashed it.”

The girls' climb was extremely difficult and required a huge amount of will power and determination to complete.

Their mother added: “I don’t know how they managed to stay awake all through the night. It must have been adrenaline that kept them going.

To date, Holly has raised more than £3,860. A Just Giving page was set up to raise money which is still open at: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/holly-nolan-4freya