A real Boy's Own hero; TRUE GRIT HELPED SIR RANULPH FIENNES CONQUER EVEREST.

Byline: ALUN PALMER

SIR Ranulph Fiennes was going to reach the summit of Everest if it killed him - and it very nearly did.

For someone with so much derring-do, he was not about to let anything as trivial as a heart attack put him off.

And last night the world's greatest living adventurer finally conquered the world's tallest mountain.

It proved third time lucky for 65-year-old Ranulph, whose first Everest expedition in 2005 ended when he had a heart attack just 300 metres from the summit.

When he set off again last year, he was forced back at 8,400 metres, suffering from exhaustion. Afterwards he declared: "I won't be returning to Everest.

"Last time I had a heart attack, this time bad timing and weather scuppered my chances. I think any third attempt would be bad luck."

GLORY

But defeat is simply not in his vocabulary, so he set off again. And just before 1am yesterday he became the oldest Briton and first UK pensioner to climb the 8,850 metre peak.

His heroic achievement - which he hopes will raise pounds 3million for Marie Curie Cancer Care - is the crowning glory of a glittering career that could have come straight from the pages of a Boy's Own annual.

He is now the first man to cross both North and South Poles unaided, and climb Everest. In 2003, he did seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

Four years later he braved the treacherous north face of the Eiger. His exploits seem to come from a different age - even his name has echoes of storybook heroes.

Born in Windsor, his full title is Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet. To friends he is simply Ran.

He never knew the father he was named after - the Lieutenant Colonel died before he was born, at the battle of Monte Cassino. Sir Ranulph was sent to Eton where he was mercilessly picked on.

He was dubbed "tart", had his bottom pinched, was jeered and wolf-whistled. These things might seem mild today but he says it drove him to contemplate throwing himself in the Thames. Instead, he took up boxing to beat the bullies.

After Eton he served eight years in the Army - at first in his father's regiment the Royal Scots Greys and then as a demolitions expert in the SAS.

His military career was marked by a series of capers that showed his spirit. In one memorable escapade he set loose a piglet, covered in tank grease, during a ball at the Army's Staff College in Camberley. But another jape went a little too far.

Incensed when a huge concrete dam was built in the quaint Wiltshire village of Castle Coombe, for use in the film Doctor Doolittle, he planted explosives and detonators on the dam. Although he didn't actually set them off, he was sacked from the SAS but spared a prison sentence.

After a brief period in the army of the Sultan of Oman, helping to quell a communist uprising, he quit as a soldier to begin his adventures in earnest.

His most famous trek was the Transglobe Expedition. From 1979 to 1982, he and two other SAS men travelled the world on its axis by surface transport only.

They were the first to have visited both poles by land. His exploits were made easier because of his immunity to pain and discomfort.

In 1982, near the Arctic Circle, he pulled off his frozen balaclava and a lump of beard and skin came too. And a solo trek to the North Pole in 2000 was abandoned when he got severe frostbite in his left hand.

His doctor insisted the dying fingers be kept for several months, to allow healthy tissue to regrow before amputating them.

But, tired of the pain, Sir Ranulph tried to hack off his fingertips with a fretsaw. When the blade proved too dull, he went out and bought a Black & Decker saw with a micro blade to finish the job.

The spur for his assault on Everest was the memory of his first wife Ginny, who died in September 2004 after a long battle with stomach cancer.

Ginny received such great hospice care from Marie Curie nurses that he wanted to raise funds for the cancer charity.

CONQUERED

Sir Ranulph, who has a three-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, by his second wife Louise, has said: "The nurses are fantastic. But there aren't enough of them."

Now that he has finally conquered Everest don't expect him to put his feet up. Asked if he would be happy to die on the mountain, he replied: "I wouldn't be happy to die anywhere or at any time. But being a coward I'd prefer to die quickly and painlessly, rather than lingering."

HEROICS HISTORY

1969 Travels the length of the White Nile by hovercraft

1970 Traverses Norway's Jostedalsbreen Glacier

1979 to 1982 Travels globe on its polar axis by land transport 1992 Discovers lost city of Ubar

1993 Attempts to cross the Antarctic unaided

12000 On solo walk to North Pole his sleds fall through ice

2003 Four months after double heart bypass, he does seven marathons in seven days

2005 Attempt on Everest ends when he has a heart attack

2007 Climbs north face of Eiger

2008 Exhaustion ends a second attempt on Everest

2009 Reaches Everest summit

CAPTION(S):

TAKING IT ON THE CHIN His 1982 Arctic injury WIVES The late Ginny, above, and Louise, below TRIUMPH Third time lucky for Everest expedition DRIVEN Scaling the treacherous north face of Eiger in 2007