đź“· Photo: Franco Pecchio via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
VICTORIA, Seychelles — Seychellois mountaineer Catherine “Kate” Rose has added Point Peter, Mount Kenya’s fifth-highest and most technically demanding peak at 4,757 metres, to her list of summits, and used the climb to launch a campaign raising awareness of multiple myeloma and pancreatic cancer, two diseases that have touched her family.
Point Peter is a steep, rocky route on Mount Kenya that demands advanced technique, careful planning, endurance and resilience. Reaching the summit, Rose unfurled the Seychellois flag, making it a moment both personal and national.
Multiple myeloma and pancreatic cancer are the two diseases her campaign will put in the spotlight. “Multiple myeloma is personal to home. I lost a very good uncle in Seychelles in December last year. It is something that is very, very close to home,” Rose said.
Rather than focusing on her own family’s experience, Rose hopes the campaign will encourage broader conversations and earlier diagnosis. “I want people to come forward, share their stories and raise awareness because these cancers affect many families, even if they don’t receive as much public attention as others,” she said.
Rose, who is 35, was born in Seychelles and has been based in Nairobi, Kenya for the past 11 years. She began hiking in late 2024 and moved into technical climbing months later. In under two years, she has established herself as a high-altitude climber, with a public résumé of first-Seychellois ascents including Lobuche Peak 6,119 metres in Nepal, Mount Kenya’s Batian peak at 5,199 metres, and Margherita peak at 5,109 metres in Uganda, as covered by the BBC weekly quiz. She has summited Mount Kenya’s Lenana peak at 4,985 metres three times, an ascent she described in a long personal profile in East Africa’s Daily Monitor last year.
She has also climbed in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Mauritius and Nepal. “I have learned as I go. Every mountain teaches you something different because every climb comes with different weather, terrain, and challenges,” she said.
For Rose, mountaineering is not just sport. “It has become a different form of therapy. It is a one-to-one conversation with yourself. There is reflection, difficult moments but also determination. Every climb reminds me why I keep going.”
Point Peter, her most technical climb to date, is supported by Hunt Deltel & Co. Ltd, whose sponsorship made the expedition and the carrying of the Seychellois flag possible. She hopes more individuals and organisations will join the mission.
“There are people supporting me in Seychelles, Kenya and overseas. The campaign is growing because people are connecting with its purpose,” she said.
Her eight-year-old daughter Megan has already joined her on hikes up Mount Kenya and visited a stratovolcano, while her son has developed a passion for rock climbing. The expedition is a family story as much as a personal one, Rose said.
She is already preparing for her next challenge: in October she will travel to Nepal to attempt a climb to approximately 7,200 metres, her highest altitude yet. Mount Kenya’s main peaks rise above 5,000 metres and the park is one of Kenya’s principal high-altitude sites, as the BBC has covered, while a BBC News quiz piece on Rose also traced her ascent.
“It is about resilience. It is about representing Seychelles with pride. And above all, it is about using the mountains to inspire hope, encourage difficult conversations about cancer, and remind others that no dream is too distant for those willing to prepare, persevere and keep climbing,” she said.
Sources cited: BBC News, Weekly quiz: Why did Catherine climb the UK’s three highest peaks?, 2 July 2026 (cites her résumé and first ascents); YouTube, History Made: Youngest Seychellois Climbs Mount Kenya, 13 December 2025 (Islanders Ascent channel, the personal channel of Catherine Rose); YouTube, Islanders Ascent channel (Rose’s own channel with the climb story).
