BRAVE Pam Caswell from Crossways has vowed to scale Mount Everest for her 50th birthday in memory of her husband who was killed in a climbing accident.

Widow Mrs Caswell, 48, has timed her ambitious attempt for 2003 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of the world's highest mountain.

Now the experienced mountaineer and mother of three is appealing for sponsorship to raise £30,000 to realise her dream in the Himalayas.

Mrs Caswell, of Yalbury Lane, Crossways, said: "I am really looking forward to it.

"I am determined to go and will put my house on the market if it is the only way to raise the money.

"The aim is to go in May or June 2003 for my 50th birthday in August. But half of the reason for going is because of my husband Steve."

She added: "I was going to go 10 years ago, but decided to stay to get married to Steve and got pregnant. This time I am going to make it."

Trained primary school teacher Mrs Caswell will be the only 50-year-old woman in a party led by Edinburgh based guide Henry Todd and his wife Peta.

She has scaled 61 peaks over 4,000 metres high - including 39 over 4,000 metres in the Alps and others in Pakistan and five higher than 5,000 metres on two trips to Peru.

But the expedition to climb Everest - at 8,848 metres or 29,028 feet - will be her first trip to the Himalayas.

It comes after her second husband Steve died in 1994 when they were both caught up in a horrific climbing accident in the Alps. Ravine

Mrs Caswell, who was pregnant, and her geology lecturer husband fell down a ravine on the descent from a peak. She said: "We had done all the hard bits and fell through a snow bridge.

"I fell first and the rope broke my fall, but Steve fell 100 feet. He survived six hours before he died and I was rescued two days later."

Mrs Caswell, who is studying on a computer and internet course, has three children - two aged 24 and 29 from her first marriage and a third son aged six.

Her bid to climb to the roof of the world comes 50 years after Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first to reach the summit of Everest in 1953.

She added: "I would like to hear from anyone who can help, either through sponsorship, donations or ideas on how to raise the money."

Phone her on (01305) 851872.