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Despite a number of inherited ills which makes her life an itching scratching hell at times, Barbara overcame and continues to overcome all her health problems to achieve her dreams and her story is one which should inspire legions of young people to come.

Whilst the majority of us look at old family photos and see that we have inherited Grandma’s chin and eyes or (possibly unfortunately) Grandpa’s nose, Barbara inherited allergies from one side of her family and eczema from another.  As a small baby if raindrops fell on her whilst she was in her pram, her skin came out in blotchy itchy red lumps.

As a child some of her earliest memories are of various daily and nightly unguents which made her life a misery and her mother’s a Calvary.  Until she was around five or six, she was wrapped into a pillow case and tied in with nappy pins to stop her scratching, a kind of no-scratch straight jacket that must have been a physical and mental torture for a young child.  She vividly remembers her own, and her mother’s, nightmares of coal tar creams and the resulting mess in the sheets every night, sheets which then had to be scrubbed by hand in those days.

School wasn’t much better, in fact it was a mental and physical torture  She embodied all that a child fears when entering school – she was different.  Nobody can be as cruel as children when they spot someone who doesn’t fit the norm.  No-one wanted to hold hands in ring-a-roses with a child with red scratchy blotches – after all it might be catching, mightn’t it?  To make things more poignantly difficult she was an only child, however a neighbouring doctor told her mum that the eczema would make her strong.

Over the years the allergies and eczema became less fierce but never disappeared.  Then one day a courageous teacher made a rather avant-guarde decision and took the young Barbara to the Snowdonia hills.  A shy and reticent young girl discovered what was to be the passion of her life, walking and climbing in the mountains, despite her problems, including an allergy to her own perspiration.  She also found that her crippling shyness, rooted in her health problems became less acute when talking with fellow walkers and climbers – Barbara had been reborn.

Despite family pressure and the numerous difficulties those days with transport both public and private, she made ways to continue with her new -found passion, all through the last months of school, teacher training, marriage and beyond.

Barbara was part of the first wave of professionally trained mountain rescuers and then the new group of rescuers with real medical training in looking after accident victims on the spot, having the knowledge to deal with immediate resuscitation and the best and safest methods to transfer an accident victim to hospital.  Later, by various quirks of fate, she became the first, and possibly the only, woman civilian to be employed by the British Ministry of Defence to train soldiers in mountain climbing and rescue.

She has travelled all over Europe and attempted many of the big mountain faces, but sadly, because of her allergies, has never been able to travel to India or the Himalayas.  Contacts however did facilitate her travel to Saint Kilda in the Outer Hebrides and the Falklands after the conflict with Argentina was over.  A chance visit to Spain introduced her to this country and later to Tenerife and a level of integration and love of her adopted island which is an example to everybody looking to relocate in a foreign country.  She was one of the first people to come to the island specifically to walk.  Chapters in the book on the Titsa bus service, her visits to the Teide National Park and her involvement with local charaters and a local folk group reveal her deep commitment to Tenerife and its people.

This amazing woman learned to fly at 50, learnt Spanish and how to play a guitar and sing local folksongs to blend in more with her chosen community in Adeje in Tenerife and has dedicated a lifetime to safer hill walking and climbing for all.

There were many benefits of seasonal life in Tenerife, such as escaping from annual allergies, however her illnesses continue to plague her.  Local calimas (clouds of sandstorm particles in the air brought over from Africa) are a nightmare, water additives make showering a painful enterprise resulting in sore patches of skin all over her body and too much heat or tossing or turning in a hot night can result in scabbing blotches all over her body.

Barbara took cortisone for 15 years and she is still fighting her illnesses, but most of all she is still fighting the ignorance of the vast majority of the public that she comes across.  There are five million eczema sufferers in the UK, but the level of prejudice doesn’t seem to lessen.  Children still suffer confidence crippling bigotry and ignorance with their peers, the other children’s parents and sadly even with some teachers.  The ignorance doesn’t stop at childhood.  Even with close friends who know of her illness, Barbara has had to put people on the right track.  When a friend once ordered, “for goodness sake Barbara, stop scratching”, she replied in her forthright way, “you wouldn’t tell a cripple not to limp”.

A firm supporter of the British National Eczema Society, Barbara has dedicated her book to them and hopes that other sufferers will realise that they can make their dreams come true, no matter what their level of illness.  If only 10 per cent of eczema sufferers joined the National Society, they could save their core services, their helpline, website, printing and up-dating and quarterly Exchange magazine and nurse study days.

Barbara’s autobiography and travelogue of her adventures, Itching to Climb, is well worth buying and reading for anyone interested in travelling, walking, climbing, social and educational differences in opportunities for women over the last 60 years and how to really become truly integrated into tinerfeñan life.  Her story, and her struggle to overcome all that life has thrown at her, are an inspiration to all, as well as a very good read.

By Sheila Collis

Itching to Climb

Author: Barbara James

Price: £8.99

ISBN: 978 1848760 202

Available from Amazon (please note that buyers abroad have to use a different purchase page)

Gallery: Itching to climb

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