Fearless Annalu drops everything for abseil challenge

A disabled Dundee University academic scaled new heights for charity at the weekend when she abseiled off a 150-foot crane.

Dr Annalu Waller, who uses a walking aid and a motorised scooter, abseiled from the Titan crane in Clydebank on Saturday.

Fearless Annalu, a senior lecturer at the university’s school of computing, joined colleagues Rolf Black, Kathleen Cummins and Ha Trinh to take part in the fund-raising stunt.

The group, who have raised over £1800 so far, braved the abseiling challenge to help pay for one of their research participants to attend a conference on augmentative communication in Barcelona in July.

The rest will help support a user group of adults who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to work as consultants to the Dundee AAC Research Group.

Annalu (47) said she was left exhilarated by the experience.

“It was fantastic but it was a bit scary,” she said. “I just tried not to look down and it was great once we got going.

“We have had a lot of support and donations. We have a lot of good colleagues and great friends who sponsored us. It was an amazing experience.”