A CIVIL servant once reliant on crutches to walk has conquered one of East Lancashire's biggest hills.

Blackburn mum Debbie-Hurtley Smith could only move using two crutches 18 months ago, before she undertook the challenge of climbing Pendle Hill last Sunday.

More than 40 people, including friends and family, turned out to support the 49-year-old, who had been taking part in health improvement sessions at Blackburn's Be Strong to improve her health.

Explaining her decision to climb the 557m hill, Mrs Smith said: "I hadn’t been up since I was a child, and I just wanted to see if I could now do it."

Mrs Smith, of Preston Old Road, Blackburn, walked into her first Be Strong group session at St Paul’s R C Primary School, Preston Old Road, Feniscowles in October 2017.

At the time Mrs Smith suffered with crippling anxiety and chronic pain disorder. She needed two crutches to aid her movement and could only walk very short distances. Debbie also had to take regular medication to keep her pain and anxiety under control.

Debbie, who has a 30-year-old daughter, regularly took part in Be Strong HIIT exercise sessions, something which she had to do seated when she first joined, but now she no longer needs her crutches.

During her therapy, Mrs Smith decided to wanted to complete another challenge to mark her progress - climbing Pendle Hill. On Sunday, dozens of people turned out to support Debbie in achieving her goal. In a determined effort, she managed to reach the summit and touch the trig point.

She said: "It was very challenging and hard work. But I definitely wanted to complete it. It took 1hr10 mins to get to the top and about 2h20mins to do the whole walk.

"My next challenge is to take part in the ‘walking miles for Milly’s Smiles event at Witton Park on May 12. I have been set the challenge to walk ten miles. A challenge which will stretch me, but I am looking forward to it."

Rick Wilson, co-founder of Be Strong said: "We are so very proud of Debbie, she didn’t just conquer Pendle on Sunday, she conquered another aspect of her new healthy lifestyle."

For more information visit www.mybestrong.com