{"id":138773,"date":"2018-06-09T21:14:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-09T21:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/boy-8-youngest-to-climb-old-man-of-hoy\/"},"modified":"2018-06-09T21:14:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-09T21:14:54","slug":"boy-8-youngest-to-climb-old-man-of-hoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/boy-8-youngest-to-climb-old-man-of-hoy\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy, 8, youngest to climb Old Man of Hoy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"EdwardImage copyright Bekki Christian
Image caption Edward and his coaches reached the top at about 16:55 on Friday <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An eight-year old boy from Caithness in the Highlands has become the youngest person to climb the Old Man of Hoy sea stack off the coast of Orkney.<\/p>\n

Edward Mills, who lives in Dunnet, set himself the challenge to raise money for the charity Climbers Against Cancer.<\/p>\n

His mum, Bekki Christian, has terminal breast cancer.<\/p>\n

Edward described the trip to the top of the 450ft (140m) column of rock as "quite scary".<\/p>\n

'Hidden box'<\/h2>\n

He told BBC Scotland his mum had taken a ferry to see him during the climb, which then sounded its horn when he reached the peak.<\/p>\n

He described finding a box and small book at the end of his climb. He said: "There was a hidden box up on the top and I had a metal card which said 'Mum's gift to Climbers Against Cancer', which I put into the box and I wrote a story in the book.<\/p>\n

"I said I climbed this sea stack for my mum and I raised money for Climbers Against Cancer.<\/p>\n

"I hope other people will read this book and think of their own ideas about what they might say."<\/p>\n

Image copyright NATHAN MILLS
Image caption Edward Mills tackled the ascent on Friday afternoon <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Image copyright Bekki Christian <\/figure>\n

Edward said he started climbing when he was about two years old. He said his mum Bekki was very proud of him. <\/p>\n

She told the BBC Scotland news website: "He's done it. He climbed every move himself."<\/p>\n

He completed the ascent on Friday afternoon, with his coaches Ben West and Cailean Harker. <\/p>\n

Scaled the landmark<\/h2>\n

The record was previously held by 10-year-old Ollie Buckle, from Flax Bourton, near Bristol.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, renowned British climber Leo Houlding scaled the landmark when he was 11.<\/p>\n

Edward and his team began their climb at midday and reached the top at 16:55.<\/p>\n

His JustGiving page called, Edward vs The Old Man of Hoy, has had donations totalling more than \u00a311,000.<\/p>\n

His dad Nathan Mills posted an update on the page which said: "He did it. He is absolutely delighted. <\/p>\n

"The hardest thing he has ever done, he said. He was anxious this morning but overcame it to make it all the way to the top."<\/p>\n

Image copyright NATHAN MILLS\/Getty Images
Image caption Edward was raising money for the charity Climbers Against Cancer <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The eight-year-old made it to the group finals of the British Mountaineering Council's Youth Climbing Series last year - the first time he had entered.<\/p>\n

This year he earned a place on the Scotland youth climbing team. <\/p>\n

His family said Orkney was a special place for them, having holidayed there many times. <\/p>\n

On the fundraising page, his dad said he hoped Edward, and his older brother George's, love of climbing, and the "amazing community" they had become part of through the sport, would help them deal with the "incredibly difficult time" they were facing as a result of their mum's cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Bekki ChristianImage caption Edward and his coaches reached the top at about 16:55 on Friday An eight-year old boy from Caithness in the Highlands has become the youngest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":138774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}