ADVENTURE-SEEKER Jo Bewley came back down to earth with a bump on her return to the North-East after an African expedition.

Jo was the only woman in a party of 37 Britons to reach the summit of Africa's highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro, in a recent charity trek.

Altitude sickness overcame the other three women and 14 of their male counterparts, preventing them from completing the near 6,000-metre ascent of the world's tenth highest mountain.

The rarified atmosphere made breathing difficult, with oxygen levels as little as one-third the norm.

But Jo, unaided by breathing equipment, managed to keep going to the top.

"I suppose it's an individual thing. Different people react in different ways," said Jo.

"Some people suffered vomiting and dizziness and it causes your brain to swell. If that happens the only way to cure it, is to come straight down.

"When I got up to the top, I had a look, said 'very nice' and turned straight back round to come down."

Jo made the descent from the Tanzanian peak unscathed, but on her return to Britain she was immediately laid low with a bug.

"It's not something I suffered over there. I think I just picked it up when I got back, and I've had to visit the doctor's."

Jo, who celebrated her 23rd birthday in Africa, decided to tackle the adventure after reading about the Whizz Kidz charity, which provides mobility aids for disabled children.

She had to raise £4,000 to fulfil a "pledge" to the charity to be able to take part, before meeting fellow Whizz Kidz challengers at Heathrow Airport, prior to the flight to Africa, last month.

Jo, originally from Broompark, near Durham, but now living in Gateshead, works at a call centre, but eventually hopes to become a children's counsellor