Kelly Perkins likes climbing mountains, which proves that she not only has a head for heights, but more importantly, the heart for it. Kelly, who is from California, is a heart transplant patient. She had the transplant in 1995. In the weeks following the transplant her body tried to reject the transplanted organ. To try to boost her morale, her husband bought her a charm bracelet and promised to buy her little silver models of any mountain she managed to climb in the future. There has been no stopping Kelly since then. She has climbed the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, California’s Mt. Whitney, Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro and Japan’s Mt. Fuji and this year, the toughest peak of them all, the Matterhorn in Switzerland. After a grueling 12-hour climb, Kelly, now 42 years old became the first person with a heart transplant scale the 4,476 metre peak. Dr. Jon Kobaschigawa, medical director of the UCLA Hear Transplant Programme and Kelly’s cardiologist said “I believe this feat is extraordinary for any person. More so a heart transplant recipient”. Kelly is truly a role model for all patients who are afflicted with serious illnesses, Kelly herself said that physically she was amazed at how well she held out and that even though it was very intimidating, and she went from being completely confident to completely discouraged, she finally simply did it!