On May 23, 2010, after 18½ hours of nonstop climbing, Cindy Abbott made the round trip from the final camp to the summit of Mt. Everest at more than 29,000 feet.
"It was just the most amazing feeling," said Cindy in a satellite phone call after reaching the peak. "You look out and know that you're on top of the world." Cindy, 51, is one of fewer than 45 U.S. women to successfully summit the peak.
Cindy, a health science lecturer at Cal State Fullerton, was diagnosed with Wegener's granulomatosis in August 2007 after losing vision in her left eye. "The blindness was a good thing in a way because I was finally diagnosed," said Abbott, who lives in Orange County, Calif. "It led my doctors, who had been seeing me for years and not knowing what was wrong with me to a diagnosis." Abbott suffered joint problems, mini strokes and vertigo, and her voice has changed as the disease alters her throat tissue.
