Rebecca Stevens was the first woman to climb Mount Everest. Before she went up the highest mountain in the world, she was a journalist and lived in south London.

In 1993, Rebecca left her job and her family and travelled to Asia with some other climbers. She found that life on Everest is very difficult. “You must carry everything on your back,” she explained, “so you can only take things that you will need. You can’t wash on the mountain, and in the end I didn’t even take a toothbrush. I am usually a clean person but there is no water, only snow. Water is very heavy so you only take enough to drink!”

Rebecca became famous when she reached the top of Mount Everest on May 17, 1993. After that, she wrote a book about the trip, and people often asked her to talk about it. She got a new job too, on a science programme on television.

Where was Rebecca Stevens from?