“After this, I knew it would hit me on Monday. I feel a bit lost. The whole of my lifestyle is going to change, and I don’t know if I’m going to cope with this,” she said.

Huang grew up in poverty in Dandong, North East China. As a child, she would often go hungry and still has a habit of eating everything on her plate, not wanting to waste a single mouthful.

She and her siblings wore shoes made from recycled materials by their grandmother, and were teased at school for their old, donated clothes.

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After finishing school, Huang became a nurse and was struggling to pay for her son’s education. In 2004, aged 31, she heard the UK was short of nurses so she decided to move and bring her son over when she was financially stable.

“I paid £16,000 [US$17,750] to come over here. Obviously, I did not have that money. I borrowed all the money from friends and family. I managed to get here,” Huang said.

An agency helped her with the move, but she did not know where they would place her. Eventually, she ended up in Edinburgh, and they set her up in a school to learn English with the promise of finding her a job as a nurse after one year – but the promises faded quickly.

“The guy got our money and ran away. He couldn’t get more students, he couldn’t keep the school open, he just ran away. We all had to find our own way. My first job was cleaning public buses at night time,” Huang said.

Huang worked her way up the ladder, from cleaning buses to a hotel, and then as a housekeeper. All the while, she was teaching herself English in her spare time.

Huang eventually got a job in a nursing home as an assistant, and after five years she applied to stay in the UK permanently.

“I was working 24/7 pretty much to pay the money back and learn English, get settled, get a house, learn to drive. It took six years,” she said.

Finally, she was in a position to go to nursing school, and earned a place at Edinburgh Napier University.

“Then I bought over my son. It was still quite tough – I was working during the day, and I had a night job, and at the same time as studying I was nursing,” Huang said.

After three years, she graduated and immediately got a job in the university transplant theatre. It was 2014, and it had taken her 10 years to get the job she had left China for.

By this time, her son was 18 and grown up, ready to leave the nest. That Christmas, he went to France with some friends.

“He sort of abandoned me at Christmas and New Year. I put in all my effort and time for him and he gradually drifted away. Even in that first year of nursing, I worked all the time,” she said.

“I picked up all the extra shifts. Then I realised my son had grown up and did not need me any more. So from then, just accidentally, I went on a walk and I just liked it.”

With a new luxury of time on her hands, Huang went hiking. Around the same time, the Christian Aid charity was celebrating its 70-year anniversary by challenging people to climb 70 Munros. Huang went on a few of their walks but had no intention of doing all of them.

“I just did walks now and again, and then I thought maybe I could do the 70. Once I reached the 70, I was thinking of doing the whole Munros. By 2017, I’d completed the first round,” she said.

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Huang then started helping out at a walking club, guiding them up the Munros. But her routes were quite intense, linking up multiple mountains at one time.

“I wanted to do the maximum. But after a while, my plans were too hard for them. I got my plans cancelled time and again, sometimes at the last minute,” she said.

“I had planned the route, and I wanted to do test it, so I thought I’m just going myself. From there, I counted the hills, and I was halfway again for another round of Munros. So, I just decided to do a second round.”

Normally, doing all the Munros is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. But now she had done them twice, Huang was not sure what to do next.

She then read an article about Anne Butler, a fellow nurse based in Scotland who had done the Munros six times and also completed a full house.

Huang got in contact with Butler and was inspired to follow in her footsteps.

Despite the intense nature of her job, with long hours in the theatre, Huang would head up to the highlands of Scotland after shifts to bag more mountains. She did roughly 500 last year, and 500 in 2022.

“I calculated the pace I did before, and thought it would take me six years. The plan was to finish in 2026. I started planning and concentrated, and started doing nine or 11 mountains a day, so I was ahead of schedule. Before I knew it, I did not have a lot to do,” Huang said.

“So this year I went crazy. I started driving after work, like up to Ullapool. That is about five hours away after work. I’d get there at midnight and hike the next day.”

By August 2022, the end was in sight and she set herself a deadline of October 1 – China Nation Day – to complete her mission.

“Once I set that day, I only had two months but I had 95 hills left to do. I was concerned and worried I’d have to work really hard to get it done,” Huang said. “August was very intense but I managed to finish everything by the middle of September.

“By that time I was relieved, I knew there were no obstacles to stop me, I only had the Pap of Glencoe to do.”

When she reached the summit, surrounded by over 50 fellow walkers and a bagpiper, Huang flew the Scottish and Chinese flags.

“I feel quite proud for my country [China]. I also mainly feel proud to raise funds for Christian Aid. I was doing it for Christian Aid because of my childhood, my poverty,” she said.

Huang has raised over £4,000 after completing her mammoth challenge, but is already starting to feel a bit restless. She plans to climb Kilimanjaro in 2025, and may even hike some Grande Randonnée trails in Europe.

For now, she is happy to reflect on her long journey since leaving China, and how much she has achieved – learning English, becoming a nurse and bagging over 1,000 mountains.

“Because I’ve always had something intense and a hard target to reach, I’ve never stopped,” Huang said. “This thing has finished. I was saying I’m not doing anything. I don’t have anything planned.

“Something will come up in time. I will try and just relax, but I think that wont happen.”