Arctic challenge for Roger

It's a support group for bereaved children in the Robsack Centre, Bodiam Drive in St Leonards, and a few years on Roger wants to give back to those who helped - he is taking on the Northern Exposure challenge organised by Southern FM's Help A Local Child.

This will mean spending eight days in the middle of Sweden, 150km south of the Arctic Circle, in wilderness conditions which will test his survival instincts to the limit.

Roger, of Windmill Drive, will learn all about coping with the some of the harshest conditions on Planet Earth - he will take part in husky driving, ice fishing, trapping, hunting, fire lighting, shelter and snow hole building.

The money raised from the Arctic Challenge will go towards local charities.

He said: "I am a 37 year old man determined to make this arctic challenge real and most important a success to help a local child in Sussex with disadvantages to enrich their lives with support, and to see a big smile on their faces.

"Why am I doing this? I lost my wife in 2005 to cancer and my eight year old daughter lost her mum. Finding things hard, we joined a group called Dragonflies which is a group for bereaved children, which was a great help, and we made some very good friends through the group. Dragonflies has had great support from Southern FM Help A Local Child, so I thought I would do this challenge to give something back...to say thank you and to help other young people in Sussex in other ways.

"Through Dragonflies I met other parents who lost partners and that has been a great help to me. The kids have a 10 week session of an hour once a week with other kids who have lost parents. For adults it's also a chance to sit there for an hour and talk about things - everybody there is in the same boat. We are all one family - everyone is there for one reason."

His Northern Exposure challenge will take place from January 9-16 in 2010 but meanwhile there is plenty of fundraising to be done - Roger's target is 2,700 and he plans to hold a number of events between now and then, such as a barbecue at the Conquest Hospital social club, and bagpacking at supermarkets.

An engineer in the brewery trade, he knows he will have his work cut out to get through the arctic experience and said: "We have first got a survival weekend coming up in November, about how to lean cooking without matches, survival techniques, how to build shelters and stuff like that - living in the woods. So at the moment I'm getting fit for that."

Anyone who wants to donate to Roger's fund can do so via his web page on www.justgiving.com and you can also check on his progress over the months.

Ellie, now 12, is "pleased" he is taking on the challenge, according to Roger, who added: "She is looking forward to helping me raise the money."