RECORD-BREAKING climber Bonita Norris inspired pupils when she gave a talk at Bournemouth Collegiate School (BCS).
She broke a British record three years ago when she reached the summit of Mount Everest at the age of 22 and she visited the Southbourne school to share her story.
Bonita is one of six elite athletes who have recently been recruited as Sports Ambassadors by United Learning, of which BCS is a part. She represents United Learning’s core value of ‘ambition’ and told students how she had set herself the goal of climbing Mount Everest and how she had worked towards realising her ambition.
The BCS pupils learnt how, as a 20-year-old student in London, Bonita had attended a lecture on mountains given by mountaineer Kenton Cool and a colleague. She remembered how they grabbed her imagination as they recounted their stories of conquering Mount Everest and tales of looking down from the summit and being able to see the curvature of the Earth.
Bonita said: “From that moment on I was completely hooked. I knew that climbing Everest was my ambition and I was obsessed.”
Bonita enlightened the pupils on her two years of training and the steps that it took to achieve her goal. And she advised them to work hard, get involved in lots of different things and not to be afraid to try new experiences.
The BCS pupils were then given the opportunity to ask questions and Year Nine pupil Ben Gautier said: “Bonita proved that whatever you put your mind to it’s possible that you can achieve it with lots of hard work and effort.”
Year 10 pupil Amelia Woodpower said: “It was incredibly inspiring to listen to Bonita. She was amazing.”
