Mountain-climbing Bewdley pensioner hands charity £4,000 (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Mountain-climbing Bewdley pensioner hands charity £4,000

7:50am Friday 26th October 2012 in News By William Tomaney

A MOUNTAIN-climbing great-grandfather from Bewdley has handed £4,000 to Midland Air Ambulance and says he wants to raise more money for the charity.

Allen Birch, 92, raised the funds by climbing more than 3,500ft up Mount Snowdon in July. He said he also planned to donate money made from selling a book of his life story later this year.

The pensioner was invited to the charity’s Strensham base on Wednesday last week where he was shown around a helicopter.

“I really got a sense of how important it is to raise money for them,” he added. “Donations from people like me are the only funds they get.

“I think it is a necessary cause. None of us know when we might need it so they were pleased that we had done it and we are only too pleased to help.”

Mr Birch, a former Brintons Carpets building manager, said he hoped to climb Mount Snowdon again next summer.