Theresa completes mountain challenge
Published 13 Jul 2012 09:30
A COURAGEOUS Dumbarton climber was given a special surprise recently
after completing a mammoth charity challenge in memory of her aunt.
Theresa McIntyre finally conquered all of Scotland's 283 Munros after reaching the summit of Perthshire's Schiehallion on May 26.
And despite the 41-year-old thinking she had seen it all after taking on the country's most challenging peaks, she couldn't believe what lay in wait at the top...
She told the Reporter: "I was walking with eight other friends and when we got to the top my friend Michael jumped out as a surprise, dressed as Jimmy Savile!
"He'd texted me in the morning to say that he couldn't make it and but had left a drink at the top. He then waited at the top for me for over three hours before leaping out - but it took me a few moments to realise it was him!
"He had also carried a table, ice box and ice bucket
to the summit, and presented me with pink Lanson champagne and a Jim'll Fix It-style medal. He also brought cocktail sausages, pickles, cheese sticks, loads of sweets, trifle and gingerbread cake and laid them on the table."
Theresa explained the special significance behind the tribute to Jimmy, who died in October 2011 and was famed for his "Owz about that then" catchphrase.
She told us: "Michael and I had previously climbed about 205 Munros together. Every time we passed through Glencoe he would point out Jimmy Savile's house and to noise him up I'd point to another one and say, 'No, it's that one'."
"We were climbing two Munros one day and I told him I'd had a dream that I met Jimmy and said, 'How are you Jimmy?' and we chatted for ages.
"Michael and I were laughing at that and as we came off the hills and into the car I put on the radio and it was announced that Jimmy Savile had died."
Theresa got hooked on her hobby of Munro-bagging almost three years ago after deciding to get fit while improving her knowledge of the country's geography.
So far she has managed to use her hobby to raise more than £3,000 for Clydebank's St Margaret's hospice which cared for her aunt Josephine Evans before she died last July.
She added: "I would like to thank my mum, two aunts and uncle who joined me for the weekend and to all my friends who walked with me.
"Also to my friends from Dumbarton who made the effort to join me and physio friends who surprised me after the walk and to my neighbour George Hume who painted me a beautiful picture of my final Munro."
This article appeared in Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter 13 Jul 12
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