The Cumbrian 9-year-old mountaineer with over 900 peaks under his belt

The boy from Gosforth, near Whitehaven, scaled his first Wainwright at the age of just three. A few weeks later, he shot up Helvellyn and Scafell Pike and, by the time he was seven, he had completed the Wainwright Challenge – all 214 summits.

That same year, he became the youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Olympus, in Greece, raising thousands for Mountain Rescue. The following year, he climbed to Everest Base Camp, raising thousands for the children’s charity, Make-A-Wish, and became the youngest climber of the Toubkal ridge, the highest peaks in northern Africa, raising more money for the Anthony Nolan Trust, as well as completing six of the highest peaks of Europe.

Frankie, who was a finalist in the Cumbria Life Awards in 2024 in recognition of his achievements, later completed the Wainwright 214 Challenge again and is currently half-way through it for the third time. In August 2025, he became the youngest Briton to top the highest peaks of Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

But when his head isn’t in the mountains, it’s in the classroom where the nine-year-old has proved so bright he’s been bumped up a year. While this was great on the one hand, it did leave him without his usual chums – until he was befriended by Xander Morris.

‘He was so kind and looked after him,’ recalls Frankie’s mother, Basia, who introduced her son to the joys of the mountains. ‘Then we found out that Xander had heart issues. He was taken ill at school and had to be rushed to hospital when he was five where he was diagnosed with a critical condition. He’s lucky to be here.

‘They found out his father and his brother had the same condition and no-one knew. It is called Long QT syndrome type 2 (LQT2). It’s a life-threatening disorder that can lead to sudden cardiac death due to life-threatening arrhythmias. The heart can stop, or go fast and slow, which can cause a cardiac arrest. It’s something they will have to live with all their lives.

‘Frankie has done a lot of fundraising in his time and, because of his friend, he wanted to do something for a heart charity. So, we started looking into it and found CRY – Cardiac Risk in the Young – and the Aaron Dixon Memorial Fund, which provides heart screening in Cumbria.

‘Now, we are planning to mark Frankie’s 10th birthday by raising £50,000 by climbing the 10 highest mountains in the Balkans: Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania and Kosovo.’

With ‘safety first’ always in mind, Frankie will climb with Basia, a fully-qualified mountain leader and Mountain Rescue volunteer in the UK, accompanied by specialist local guides.

The summits range in height from 6,007ft to 9,596ft. By comparison, England’s highest mountain is 3,209ft, meaning the smallest summit in this challenge is still twice the height of England’s highest.

For all his enthusiasm and experience, a climb on this scale will be a real test of strength and determination, quite unlike his achievements so far.

Weeks away from home, family and friends, travelling from country to country over long distances, staying in new accommodation and surroundings every day will pose a challenge for the youngster. But anyone who has come across Frankie will know that he never gives up and, this time, he has the extra motivation of Xander.

Frankie’s Race Across The Balkans is the latest of his ambitions to scale the highest peaks in every European country.

Frankie and Basia aim to complete all 10 summits in just six weeks during the summer holidays this year. In years to come, he hopes to become the youngest person to climb Mount Everest and the next seven highest summits in the world.

The money he raises will go into a Frankie McMillan Fund within CRY that will be ringfenced and allocated for west Cumbria heart screenings like The Aaron Dixon Memorial Fund, founded by Aaron’s mother, Debbie. Aaron was born in Kendal in 1987, but tragically, he died in 2011 from an undiagnosed genetic heart condition.

‘Looking back, there had been signs,’ recalls Debbie. ‘He’d had two blackouts and was admitted to hospital, but the last thing they thought it might be was his heart and he wasn’t given an ECG.’

Debbie, who now lives in Cheshire, says she later discovered that 12 young people a week die from such heart conditions and 80 per cent have not shown previous symptoms.

Since then, she has given up her job in sales and marketing to devote her life to a charity that raises money to provide heart screening sessions in various parts of the country, including Kendal since 2016, Penrith, Carlisle and soon in west Cumbria. This year alone, she has held 34 screenings of 11,132 people aged 14 to 35. Of those, 438 had to be referred for more tests.

‘We screened one young girl after her mum contacted me,’ she says. ‘They were told that her symptoms were probably asthma or depression, but the mum had a feeling it was more. It turned out she had end-of-life heart failure and had to have a heart transplant.

‘It’s frightening what can be missed, but I am like a dog with a bone. The ECGs take 15 to 20 minutes and are non-invasive. It’s minutes out of your day for peace of mind. If you have an underlying heart condition and are exercising, like our son, you are actually putting a strain on your heart. We actively encourage our children to stay fit and healthy and they think they are fine, but they are the people who need screening and it’s about changing that view.

‘It’s not about being overweight or smoking, as these heart conditions are to do with the electrical side of the organ and we never know what is going on inside our bodies, which is why I encourage everyone to be screened.

‘I’d like to think Aaron would be really proud of everything that has been achieved in his memory. I don’t want anyone else to go through losing a child, as the grief is on another level, and doesn’t go away. I had to do some something positive in Aaron’s memory.’

Debbie has nothing but high praise for Frankie. ‘He is incredible; he’s on a mission now and he will do it. When he gave a presentation to the consultants, their mouths were hanging open. It is mind-blowing what he has done for charity. He is on another level. I’ve never met a nine-year-old like him.’

She says that Danish footballer, Christian Eriksen, highlighted the issue after he collapsed while playing from a similar condition. ‘If you are competing in sport and training hard, you really need to be screened,’ says Debbie. ‘I don’t know why there’s no national screening programme. Some parents know how important this is, especially if they play rugby. We screen Sale Sharks.’

Frankie says: ‘When I found out that my best friend at school had a critical heart condition, I just wanted to help.

‘My mum has always walked in the mountains and I just kept asking to go with her. My first was Catbells and I loved it, particularly technical scrambling. Now we just take all the chances we can to get out. I’d like to be a cross between Bear Grylls and Leo Houlding. I’d love to be a mountaineer one day, or a mountain guide and rock climber. I also want to be the youngest person to climb Everest.’

Money donated via Frankie’s fundraising link will go directly to the Frankie McMillan Fund and some will also go to CRY’s core funding and support the charity nationally as well.

Heart screenings can identify and facilitate the management of people with undiagnosed heart problems. Early detection enables prompt medical intervention that can minimise the risk of sudden cardiac death.

One in 300 people in CRY tests will have a potentially life-threatening heart condition that will benefit from lifestyle advice, treatment and sometimes corrective surgery. But a one-day heart screening session costs £7,000 to help 100 young people.

Basia says: ‘We came across Debbie when we decided to raise money for CRY. She gave us loads of advice on how to organise it, who to contact. We wanted to open a separate fund within CRY to organise and sponsor free heart screenings specifically in west Cumbria and Debbie gave us loads of advice on how to sort it out. Now we have Frankie McMillan Fund within CRY.

‘I noticed the closest free heart screening sessions to us are a two-hour drive away. There’s nothing in west Cumbria. Yet every week, 12 young people in the UK die of sudden cardiac death. The screening can prevent this from happening and save many lives. I wanted to bring free heart screening for young people to our area and allocate Frankie’s fundraising funds this way and we have managed it.’

The money Frankie raises will be enough to provide seven days of screening in west Cumbria.

Basia adds: ‘It gives me goosebumps just thinking that, in a few months, we will be standing in front of Drigg Hall watching 100 young people queuing for heart screening and we’ll be able to say, “we did this”. It would be the proudest moment for us both.’

FIND OUT MORE

To find out more about Frankie and to follow his adventures Frankie Moves The Mountains;

@frankie_moves_the_mountains or search Frankie McMillan mountains.

To donate, visit: givestar.io/gs/10-countries-10-highest-peaks-one-10-year-old

Money donated via Frankie’s fundraising link will go directly to the Frankie McMillan Fund and some will also go to CRY’s core funding and support the charity nationally as well.