A NURSE from Worcestershire is preparing to scale a 3,363-metre Canadian peak for charity.

Ann-Marie Dodson, from Leigh, will be joining a team which is climbing Mount Edith Cavell in the Canadian Rockies next year, in aid of nursing charity Cavell Nurses’ Trust.

But this will be far from the first time the mother-of-two, who runs the hepatology and liver transplant course at Birmingham City University (BCU), has strapped on her climbing shoes – last year, she led a group of staff and students looking at healthcare needs in Nepal and climbing to Everest base camp.

“When I was at school, I was really interested in geography and was hoping to be a mountaineering instructor, even though nursing was still my first choice,” she said.

Today, she works during the week at BCU while also working as an intensive care nurse in Edgbaston and has also scaled a number of peaks including K2 in the Himalayas, the second-highest mountain in the world.

Now, she is preparing to ascend the Canadian mountain named after the First World War heroine Edith Cavell who was executed in 1915 for helping 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium and who is also the namesake of the charity.

She said: “I will be 58 next year when I take part in the Mount Cavell climb, so I will probably be the oldest.

I think it’s going to be more technical than I have done for a long time, but I am very determined, even though I recently had knee surgery.”

In preparation for the challenge – part of the Redditch -based charity’s appeal to raise £3million by October 2015 to support nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants across the country – she will be running a number of half and full marathons.

She was recently invited to the Tower of London to kick off the effort along with veteran broadcaster Loyd Grossman, who said he hoped it would help raise as much money as possible.

“Edith Cavell was an important figure whose humanity and compassion for the injured and sick on both sides of the conflict during the First World War shone through a very dark time in history,” he said.

“These qualities still have the power to inspire us today and I hope to support and build on this legacy of care and compassion which Edith Cavell left us with following her untimely death.”

To support the cause, visit justgiving.com/Ann-Marie- Dodson2 For information on the Cavell Nurses’ Trust, call 01527 595999 or visit www.cavellnursestrust.org.