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HIDDEN on top of the Old Man of Hoy, the iconic rock stack off the Orkney coastline is a small box. Tucked inside is a metal card engraved with the words: “I did this for my mum.”

Edward placed the plaque inside when, in May, he became the youngest person to scale the 449ft stone column. He was inspired to tackle the challenge for his terminally-ill mum, Bekki.

The idea took shape during family holidays in Orkney. On a clear day, they could see the Old Man of Hoy. So when Edward, a keen climber, heard a 10-year-old boy had become the youngest person to climb it, he wondered whether he could beat the record.

His mum Bekki had been living with breast cancer for as long as Edward could remember. And, over the previous year, it had spread and become terminal. Edward pledged to climb the Old Man of Hoy as a tribute to Bekki and to fundraise for Climbers Against Cancer. “I wish there was a cure for cancer, so I wanted to raise money for a charity,” he says.

Edward, from Gloucestershire, started training twice a week. And despite fears she would not live to see the climb, on June 8, Bekki watched her son’s incredible ascent from a ferry on the waters below. He completed the feat in four and a half hours, raising £35,000.

Bekki passed away at home three months later, on August 30.

Dad Nathan, 46, says Edward’s feat lit up her final weeks. “It meant the world to her,” he says. “I’m so proud of him.”