A DEDICATED fund-raiser from Upton-upon-Severn is worried that nobody is going to sponsor him on a chilly challenge that will raise money for a fund in memory of a girl who died in a car crash on the way to getting her A-level results.

Clint Varndall, of William Tennant Way, is going to walk 10 one-mile laps around the town in just a pair of shorts to raise money for the Kelly Rice Memorial Fund.

The Worcester News reported last week how Mr Varndall had set up the fund after the 18-year-old's family from Ryall, near Upton, told him it was Kelly's dream to raise money for an orphanage in Mombasa, Kenya, after she visited it on holiday in April. She died in August, four months later, in a collision with a van on the A38 just south of Kempsey.

But Mr Varndall has not received a single sponsor for his fund-raising for the orphanage, which is reliant on funding from abroad. The orphanage called Tumaini, which means hope, currently cares for 18 children who live with Aids or Aids related diseases.

The 45-year-old said: "I don't know why nobody has called. This is Kelly's wish but it seems it's not the wish of everybody else at the moment. I'm disillusioned at the moment but my fighting spirit tells me we will get there in the end."

Mr Varndall knows from previous experience that he will need all his fighting spirit when he does the two -and-a-half-hour walk on Friday, November 10.

He did exactly the same challenge last year raising funds for Children in Need.

He said: "It was minus six in the town last year and minus 10 down by the river. I ended up in hospital with pains across my chest." However, he was keen to stress he did not want sympathy, just the public's support. He said: "The people of Upton are brilliant but I don't want them to think I'm using them. I don't want to keep going back to the same people.

"Kelly died, but out of her death there was a birth and that birth was the Kelly Rice Memorial Fund. If she hadn't died I know she would have gone on to do major charity work."

Mr Varndall set up the Kelly Marie Rice Memorial Fund after raising £626.12 by a 50-mile bike ride around Upton after the tragedy in August.

The Big Freeze walk starts at 6pm outside the Talbot Head Hotel, High Street, Upton. Collection buckets will be present.

To sponsor Mr Varndall or donate money to the Kelly Rice Memorial Fund call 07906 236064. You can also transfer money to the Fund at Lloyds TSB bank using account number 4851 6060 and sort code 30 99 90.