A 14-YEAR-OLD has persevered to come third in an international skiing competition - despite having type-1 diabetes. 

Neev Renton, from Crosby Ravensworth, competed in a ski mountaineering competition in France this month.

She was one of the youngest to compete in her class and she was up against French and American skiers with more access to winter sports than she does in the UK. 

However Neev still put on a great performance completing the Pierre Etape 7.8km course with a difference in altitude of 900 metres in one hour and 41 minutes and coming third in her class.  

She also raced in the Championnat de France Junior on December 16 over a +500m/4.2km vertical course in 44 minutes, and a challenge event in Areches on December 28 which was a +500m vertical ascent over a 3.2km course. 

The discipline involves competitors skiing uphill and downhill and using their mountaineering abilities. It has recently become an Olympic sport, and there is interest in creating a UK team. 

Her mother Jane Renton said: "We have always skied as a family, we started when she was two. She started going up some of the hills. She was about nine when she did her first peak. It progressed from there."

Neev has started her GCSEs and has to participate in activities to complete her PE qualification. She decided to do this by doing ski mountaineering competitions. 

She attends Kendal Ski Slope and her grandmother lives in the town. The family has a chalet in France - but they are only able to go to it during Christmas and Easter.

"We are quite limited in the UK," Jane said. "She tries to keep herself fit. We have got rollerskate skis, she goes up the hill on them. She keeps fit by running." 

From when she was young, Neev had to use an insulin pump for her diabetes. She was one of the first in the UK to be fitted with an artificial pancreas which can help keep her insulin levels steady. 

However, with the intensity of the exercise that she does, the diabetes can still prove a challenge when she is racing. 

Jane said: "I think it's easier to get worn down with a condition, but we're not using it as an excuse. We have to be quite motivated and I think it's quite easy to say we can't do that because of this.

"She's not really entered those races to win or be the best, it's for her own mind."