IF you’re sailing or driving past the Fawley refinery and you see a tiny figure clambering around one of its 150ft towers, that’s probably Donna Millard.
Donna is one of the first British women certified in industrial rope access work, a skill she uses to repair some of the tallest structures in Britain, writes Ani S Delmont.
The expert climber has rigged a suspended walkway at the Eden Project in Cornwall, helped build the Millennium Dome, and attached lights on the HSBC tower on Canary Wharf.
Donna Millard at the Millennium Dome
“It makes a job more interesting being up in the ropes,” she said at her home near Lymington. “It’s not as nice as mountain climbing, but it’s exhilarating being up high. It’s a nice place to be.”
The 57-year-old has undergone years of regular training and testing to work from those heights.
Tired of plying various gigs in the 1990s, the Lincolnshire native moved to North Wales and took a tip from fellow climbers; she became a certified technician through the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA).
Donna Millard at Fawley refinery where she heads a group of rope access workers
After several stints on construction sites and oil rigs, she landed the job at Fawley where she heads a group of rope access workers. “I came for a few months and stayed 20 years,” she said, adding that her colleagues now include a young woman also certified in rope access.
Donna draws from her job experience and American Petroleum Institute inspection courses to conduct simple repairs throughout the facility. She and the team use iPads, drones, GoPros and other hi-ech kit to asses damage and relay any problems to engineers.
Dropped equipment can cause accidents, so she needs everything secured via lanyards. The key is to follow the training, she said. “You have to be out in all weather, hot or cold, windy or raining. You have to be resilient. You have to keep an eye on wind speed.
Donna Millard rigging walkways
If you follow the IRATA procedures, it’s a safe system of work.”
Does she still scale heights in her spare time?
“I stopped mountain climbing a long time ago,” she said. “I’m in a harness all day. The last thing I want to do is get back in one.”
Her fruit and vegetable garden keeps her busy, not to mention her donkeys, chickens and bees.
Always up for a challenge, Donna has taken to jumping into freezing waterways around the UK and Europe. “Cold water swimming is good for the mental wellbeing, for hot flushes,” she said. “It releases the feel-good chemicals.”