She remembers how her mother told her the sky was the limit. Only when she was sitting on the highest peak of the world, did Saray Khumala realise that her mother's words were not true. “Here I sit on the peak of Mount Everest, and the sky is below me."

Our remarkable guest speaker at this year's Women's Day event, also had the audience in the palms of her hands when she related how she summitted the world's highest mountain. Some people might say she failed three times before reaching the top, but it was quite the contrary; Saray never failed, she just climbed higher every time until she reached her goal. What's remarkable is that each time, she endured the most horrific disasters – first an avalanche, then an earthquake, and then, being left to die in a torn tent in the death zone. But after each ordeal, she once again packed her backpack and returned to Nepal where she eventually submitted Mount Everest on 16 May 2019 – all 8 848.86 meters of it. In her own words, she stated quite simply: “On this day a person like me summitted the world's highest mountain".

Saray says she arrived at Everest Base Camp on her first attempt to scale Everest, with only Kilimanjaro (5 896m) in the bag, and some training in the French Alps. “People couldn't believe that someone like me would like to take on Everest. I constantly felt that I had to prove that I belonged on the expedition. You couldn't get away from the fact that I was a black woman in a world of predominantly white men."

Nevertheless, she persevered and got to base camp at 5 300m. This was 2014, and unfortunately for her, also the year when an ice avalanche killed sixteen climbing Sherpas in the Khumba Icefall, while she and her team were preparing to climb to the summit. The mountain was closed, and they had to return home.  The next year she tried again, only to be caught between Camps 1 and 2 when a massive earthquake struck the region that saw many people killed and whole villages destroyed. Saray and her team were airlifted from Camp 1 and returned home yet again.

But Saray gathered her backpack once again and set off to summit the giant. This time she and her sherpa made a wise decision – even though very close to the summit – to turn back, as they were both weak and the weather conditions very bad. During her descent to Camp 4, she lost consciousness and arriving at the camp, thinking she was not going to make it, her sherpa put her in a torn tent and a sleeping bag with a broken zip. She woke up the next morning, starving and very weak, looking up at her sherpa who thought she died, but she managed to get to Camp 2 with frostbitten fingers and toes. Back in Katmandu, she received some medical treatment, but all she wanted to do was to fly home.

Come 2019 Saray was ready to summit and give meaning to her slogan “Keep stepping". This time she was more than prepared and with a great team to support her, she reached the summit and descended safely – as reaching the peak of Everest, is only halfway, she says. You need to make it back down safely.

Saray is no extreme athlete nor Wonder Woman. She is an ordinary person, a mother of two, a motivational speaker, and a businesswoman. Someone who had a big dream: to climb the world's highest mountain so that children could read. Her endurance was for her noble cause Summits with a Purpose — the organisation she established in 2013. It uses mountaineering to raise funds to promote literacy and education by building physical and digital libraries in disadvantaged schools. She believes education is the great equalizer, capable of changing the narrative for the next generation.

Saray dedicated her book My Journey to the Top of the World, to “all the daughters and sons of the African soil who dare to dream. It is a reminder that it doesn't matter where you start, what you look like, what happened yesterday, what is happening this moment, or what the world believes of you, you are enough and your dream… yes, those dreams are valid!

“Dare to dream," said Saray, and “never give up". #Ubuntu.

Born in Lusaka, Zambia on 16 October 2071, Saray is the second daughter of a single immigrant mother. Her first years were spent in the little town of Likasi in the Shaba Province of Zaire – now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Reaching the peak of Kilimanjaro and Everest, were not the only mountains Saray conquered. Her drive to raise funds for education saw her take on the Explorer's Grand Slam, a challenge to reach the North and South Pole and the highest peak on each of the seven continents (the Seven Summits). She was the first African woman to reach the South Pole, and alongside conquering Everest, she summited South America's highest mountain Aconcagua (6 961m), Europe's highest peak, Mount Elbrus (5 641m), and North America's Mount Denali (6 190m). Earlier this year, Saray reached the final of the seven peaks when she summited Antarctica's Mount Vinson Massif (4 892m). She is now preparing for her expedition to the North Pole.

Saray shared her lessons from mountaineering which she says are crucial for business not only to survive but to thrive – lessons we can use in our everyday lives. Firstly, she says, know your “why". “Then set clear goals and understand your strengths. Be prepared all the time, collaborate with the right partners, and build a strong team around you. Be flexible, and most importantly: never give up. Her final lesson is “practice Ubuntu" – give back in life. “I've also started taking people into the mountains. I found myself and my purpose there and I want other people to experience it too. I want to use the outdoors to inspire them and make the changes we want to see in the world.

“My own dream is to build 54 libraries, one in each country in Africa. What's yours?" Saray asked.

Amongst Saray's many admirers are President Cyril Ramaphosa who said this about her: “Saray reminds us that through courage and perseverance, we can achieve our highest ambitions, for the greater good of humanity."

Saray left us with a special message from her book:

“Every one of us has his or her own personal mountain to climb. It might not be Everest and it might not be a physical mountain – yours might be in the boardroom, on a bicycle, in your family, at school, or even in the health of your own body. The reality is there's always something we need to achieve, something big and difficult and meaningful. Whatever it is, continue to believe in your limitless potential because the summit is possible if you keep stepping. I believe that we are all extraordinary and have the capacity to do extraordinary things in our lifetime. Whatever your personal Everest, I wish you strength, purpose, kind weather, and some luck, but more importantly, God's blessing. When you get there, remember to be thankful, and then to reach down and pull someone else up with you. Saray."

Thank you, Saray, for your inspiration. You made our celebrations complete.