An Aberdeen woman who has overcome a 15-year eating disorder, depression and alcohol issues is getting reading to climb Mount Everest.
Lee Donald, a 41-year-old personal trainer, will be the first woman from Aberdeen, and seventh Scotswoman, to conquer the world’s highest mountain if she successfully completes it in March.
She told The P&J that travelling to Nepal to scale the famous 8,848.86 metre peak is a “lifelong dream” of hers.
“This is my journey from rock bottom to the top of the world,” she said.
Mrs Donald said her challenges started at secondary school and lasted until she became a personal trainer, which she credits with turning her life around.
“Through that journey of having an eating disorder and those kind of mental health issues, I chose alcohol as a way of dealing with things,” she said.
“One minute you think you can control it and the next minute it controls you.
“I just hit a very downhill spiral. I lived away from Aberdeen, a lot of work away, I went to university away from Aberdeen in Southampton, so I managed to hide a lot from my family and my friends.
‘Acknowledge it, accept it and speak about it’
“That’s the thing about an eating disorder, you become a professional liar because you don’t want people to find out. I kept a lot (of secrets) for many years, until I decided enough was enough.
“I knew that if I didn’t do something about it I wasn’t going to be here anymore.”
During her battles, Mrs Donald lost her front teeth, friends and memories, with the first step in her recovery being to “acknowledge it, accept it and speak about it”.
She added: “Through my recovery, I make it a point of being open and speaking about it to try and help other people. I’ve done videos and posts speaking about it and people just think, ‘oh, look at this super fit Lee Donald, she’s obviously never struggled in her life’.
“It’s quite nice for them to know I was where they were. I did struggle, I was overweight, underweight, struggled with my mental health and was dependent on alcohol, but I’ve still managed to rise above it by just putting in the work.”
The owner of Lee Donald Personal Training will be raising money for north-east cancer charity Friends of Anchor during her expedition, as well as raising awareness of mental health issues.
Mum of seven-year-old Léa and Jaxon, 4, Mrs Donald said she also aims to show her children “what you can achieve when you believe in yourself”.
After deciding to climb Everest about a year and a half ago due to feeling like it was “now or never”, she has been putting in plenty of training in to make sure she is ready.
In February last year, she went on a winter skills coast on the west coast of Scotland, which included climbing Britain’s highest peak Ben Nevis.
Overseas, she managed to summit Mont Blanc in France – the highest mountain in western Europe – and Gran Paradiso in Italy in June.
She also went to South America in September to undergo high altitude training in Ecuador.
There she climbed five volcanos, including the country’s tallest Chimborazo (whilst having gastroenteritis), which is situated in the Andes and stands at over 6,200m high.
Mrs Donald said that climbing Everest will show that she has “overcome everything” that has been thrown at her over the years.
‘Can’t get any higher’
“I’ve went from being rock bottom to the top of the world, you can’t get any higher than that,” she said.
“I have overcome all of my challenges, all of my setbacks, all of those hurdles and dark times that I’ve made it through. It is very symbolic for me and it means a lot.
“Just because you are where you are now doesn’t mean that’s where you need to stay.”
Conversation