Go to the US!
EGCC4284
I have just revalidated my British PPL in the UK after many years of being 'expired'. Despite being available to fly full time, despite having all the money required on tap and despite being based in the relatively much drier South of England, it has still taken me 20 months!
Admittedly, some of this was due to poor instructors: I walked out of two clubs last summer and had to start all over again each time. By far the worst obstacle, however, was UK weather. At least two thirds of my bookings were cancelled from that cause alone. In 2004, between July and December I booked a whole week's flying six times and cancelled it all, one day at a time; and that was in dry Central Southern England, Northern weather was much worse!
My advice would be to go to the US, where your friend will have an FAA PPL licence within six weeks. (It doesn't matter which country issues the PPL as long as it is an ICAO country, and the USA is an ICAO country). Then at least, she will have a valid licence 'in the bag'.
She should then be prepared to put in a further several hours at a British club on her return before being allowed to exercise the privileges of her licence. She will need this to learn to cope with UK weather and extra complex airspace and busy radio. It sounds convoluted, but will be very much quicker and cheaper in the long run.
Broomstick.