Climbing the Seven Summits with MS...

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About Wendy Booker...

PERSONAL: Age 53, single mother of 3 boys, divides her time between Boulder, Colorado and Massachusetts.

WENDY'S DIAGNOSIS: Wendy was diagnosed in June 1998 with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) after experiencing numbness in her legs for several months and, eventually, falling down at work while designing a store window.

WENDY'S MISSION: To raise awareness of Multiple Sclerosis; to inspire others by telling her story; to climb the highest mountains on each of the world's continents (The Seven Summits).

UPBRINGING/EDUCATION: Originally from Rye, New York. Attended Westminster College in Salt Lake City; graduated from Ohio University in 1976 with a major in Education and minor in Theatre and English.

PREVIOUS CAREER EXPERIENCE: Before her diagnosis, Wendy was an interior designer with 5 other women at the retail store, Timeless Interiors, in Beverly, MA.

INFO ABOUT MS: An autoimmune disease, MS is an inflammation of the nervous system. More than 400,000 Americans have it (with some estimates as high as a million). Currently, there's no cure for MS, but thankfully it's not fatal. Symptoms include an increasing loss of coordination, muscle weakness and numbness.

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Marathons & Mountains

After receiving her diagnosis, Booker, already a casual runner, became a more serious runner and soon after that, a mountain and ice climber. She is on a regimen of MS drugs and her MS is mostly in remission. On her quest to climb the world's Seven Summits, the mountains, marathons and ice conquered by Wendy include:

MOUNTAINS:

November 2008: Completed Summit #6, Mt. Koscuiszko (Australia), 7,310 ft.

January 2008: Completed Summit #5, Mt. Vinson Massif (Antarctica), 16,067 ft.

January 2007: Completed Summit #4, Mt. Aconcagua (Argentina), 22,834 ft, her 2nd attempt.

July 2006: Completed Summit #3, Mt. Elbrus (Russia), 18,481 ft.

June 2005: Completed Summit #2, Mt. Kilimanjaro, (Africa), 19,340 ft.

June 2004: Completed Summit #1, Mt. McKinley (Denali, Alaska, USA), 20,320 ft.

MARATHONS:

Chicago Marathon: 2006
Boston Marathon: 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006
New York Marathon: 2002 and 2003
Marine Corps Marathon: 2004

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Training...

Wendy Booker learned mountain and ice climbing at the International Mountain Climbing School in North Conway, NH, spending most of 2001 in the mountains of New Hampshire attending 'snow school': learning how to travel on a rope team, glacier travel, crevasse rescue as well as sleeping, living and surviving in the snow and in adverse conditions. She climbed several 14,000-foot mountains in Colorado and spent 10 days in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State preparing to climb Mt. McKinley ( Denali, Alaska). Every winter since 2002 has been spent ice climbing either in North Conway, NH, or in Chamonix, France. Her new home base in Boulder, Colorado is ideal for climbing.

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