At the beginning of July, 2011, Kat Humphrey, a 26 year-old pole-dancing and fitness instructor from Nottingham, became the first known Ben Nevis pole dancer!

In the past there have been some strange items taken up the mountain, including a car, a piano, a bed, a wheelbarrow and a barrel of beer.... but never a pole!

Kat carried a 35kg pack up Ben Nevis, as part of a 3-peaks challenge for charity. What made this challenge even more difficult was the fact that Kat has no feeling in her right leg, the result of a nerve condition called Meralgia Paresthetica, caused by a damaged L2 nerve from her spine. It means she has no surface or pressure sensation which often causes her leg to become heavy and her hip to 'collapse.'

This did cause her some discomfort, especially when going back down the mountain, but she says, "it was all worth it for the utterly unique experience of pole dancing at the top of the UK's highest peak. When I set up the pole on the side of the mountain and stripped down to my pole shorts, people around me couldn't believe what was happening. I quickly acquired an audience, including a stag party, who took pictures and videos of the feat. There were a few scary moments, for example the pole was at angle so a couple of times I was actually suspended off the side of the mountain's edge. I also lost my footing a couple of time on the way back down and the weight of the pack pulled me backwards. But, I had a good team of people looking out for me and completed the Three Peaks Challenge in under 30 hours with little more than a twisted ankle and very tired legs!"

"So, why did I do it? Apart from satisfying the adrenaline junky in me and having the ability to say that I am the first known person to pole dance on Ben Nevis, I also did it to raise money for three cancer charities - Breast Cancer Care, Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust, and Ovarian Cancer Action. I am renowned for doing crazy things for charity - last year I completed the Tough Guy Challenge, known as the world's toughest assault course, involving ice lake swims, mud slides, barbed-wire crawls, under-water tunnels, electric fences and fields of fire!"

"In November I am cycling 400km across Kenya in 5 days and pole dancing in the Kenyan desert! I'm trying to raise £ 2,800 for the three cancer charities and have set up a just-giving website: justgiving.com/katherine-humphrey Although it wasn't apparent when I first set up the site, I have since had a close encounter with Cervical Cancer myself, so these charities mean even more to me then they did before."