Gary Barlow, Chris Moyles and Girls Aloud’s finest all reached the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in April-but now Chippenham’s Joseph Alford has done the same.

Mr Alford, 24, proved that there aint no mountain high enough by conquering Africa’s tallest peak to raise funds for a charity close to his heart.

Kichijo Orphanage is a children’s home in Tanzania that has recently been bought by Mr Alford’s close friend Amy Lambert, also from Chippenham.

And while Miss Lambert’s friends and family have been rallying around in support with fundraising events at home Mr Alford decided to take it one step further and climb the beast of a mountain that looms over the children everyday.

He said: “It made it all the more real because I had visited the kids in the orphanage before I went up so I knew I was doing it for them.

“I’m not going to lie it was seriously hard, and I suffered really badly with altitude sickness. I shouldn’t have made it to the top at all. I’d gone too far for my body already.

“It felt like I’d been in the pub, had ten pints, and then decided to climb a mountain. So I did struggle. But I knew deep down that I wouldn’t give up, even when I should have done.”

In a glamorous twist to the otherwise gruelling 20,000ft climb Mr Alford’s guide team was the same one  to have accompanied the celebrities for their Comic Relief effort earlier this year.

And instead of collapsing in an exhausted heap at the summit he celebrated with a Gin and Tonic, which he had carried in his bag all the way from base camp.

“The views were just spectacular. It’s like another world up there. The clouds look like you could jump on them,” he said.

“It was a pretty emotional moment, especially because I’d been so bad with altitude sickness on the way up. I was just glad to have made it. And knowing I was helping a great cause gave me that extra push”

Mr Alford, of Queens Crescent, has so far collected around £500 for Kichijo with his climb but he first got involved with fundraising for the orphanage earlier this year when he raised over £1000 with a charity band night at the Neeld Hall.

“It wasn’t as though I was just doing it for Amy but for the children in the orphanage.

“They really have nothing and it was worse than I could have imagined. When we got there lots of them didn’t even have shoes so I used some of the money raised and spent about £30 buying them all a new pair.

“It made the woman in the market’s day as well because she only had about 35 pairs to sell in the first place.”

Having beaten Africa’s highest mountain the Chippenham Rugby player has now set his sights on even bigger challenges admitting he wants to tackle Everest next.

“I would like to move on to bigger and better things and obviously Everest would be an amazing thing to do. Now I’ve had a taste of it I’ll be thinking about doing that over the next couple of years.

In the meantime, speaking from Africa, Miss Lambert said: “I am so grateful fro all the help we’re getting from home. All my friends are amazing and I am really proud of Joe for doing the climb.”