LOST in the middle of the Kenyan jungle, in the dark, surrounded by wild animals, Julie McCabe began to wonder why she had left the domestic comforts of Devon.

Julie, 41, the owner of the Muralto Nursing Home in Tavistock, was taking part in a sponsored climb of Mount Kenya to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

On the first night the group's Land Rovers got bogged down on pitted tracks after heavy rain in the jungle at 10,000 feet on the way to their overnight hut.

It was impossible to contact anyone on the radio. They had to keep getting out of the vehicle to try to get it moving again. At one point Julie and her colleagues became separated from their vehicle and their guides.

'It was quite frightening,' she said. 'There were buffalo and elephants around us and I don't know what else. Eventually the guides came back for us, but it was not a good start.'

The days were warm, the nights so cold that the tents froze.

The trekkers had five long days of very steep and arduous climbing. They suffered nausea and headaches from the high altitude. Their guides cooked meals on gas cylinders, but many of the climbers suffered a loss of appetite and a consequent loss of weight.

All 29 made it to the top, more than 16,000 feet above sea level, and were photographed together there. Julie was in tears. 'I don't know why — mixed feelings.'

When they got back to their hotel outside Nairobi, they were looking forward to a hot shower, not having washed for five days — and there was no hot water.

Most of the participants had trekked before, but Julie had not and admitted she found it hard. She doubted whether she would do anything like it again. Some participants said it was the hardest trek they had done; even an ex-Para admitted it was tough.

Julie raised more than £2,500 by her effort and when she got home last week told the Times she was grateful to all those who had contributed to the project.

The group of 29 raised around £100,000 from the trek and the charity as a whole raised £400,000 this year through its four treks. It needs £500,000 to establish a new centre for treatment of teenage cancer patients.