MINEHEAD grandmother Karen Beaver has climbed four of the world’s highest mountains and walked the Inca trail in Peru.

She has cycled 300 miles across Vietnam and Cambodia and has just trekked 50 miles along the Great Wall of China.

And it was all to raise money for local charities.

Now Karen Beaver is planning another daunting challenge for next year – an attempt on Europe’s highest mountain, Russia’s 18,510 ft Mount Elbrus.

“This will be the most technically difficult climb I’ve done,” she said.

“We’ll be using crampons and ice-picks and taking oxygen.”

Karen, whose family runs the Beaver Ford car business in Minehead and Williton, added: “What started as a hobby ten years ago seems to get more and more challenging.

“It was in 2006 that I decided that now my children had grown up, it was time I did something just for me – and at the same time raise money for local charities.”

Since then, her seven challenges, some done with her husband, son and daughter, have raised £12,500, mainly for the charity SURE, which helps provide radiography equipment for Musgrove Park Hospital’s Beacon Centre.

Her most recent adventure – a five-day walk along the Great Wall of China with her son Luke – has raised £2,150 for SURE.

“Much of the wall is in a poor state and is very rocky and narrow – at times it was so steep we were on our hands and knees,” she said.

She said even more of an ordeal was her time spent in Beijing: “They obviously don’t see many Europeans – we were stared at, photographed and even poked at!” she said.

Four of Karen’s hardest challenges have been Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Morocco’s Mount Toubkal, Stok Kangri in India and Mount Aconcagua in Argentina.

“Aconcagua, at 22,841 feet, was the highest and most difficult. The air was very thin and it was touch and go at times.”

Karen’s fund-raising trips are sponsored by Beaver Garages and all money raised goes directly to charity: “This year I also had considerable donations from Minehead Motor Factors and A J Farmer and Sons,” she said.