A KIDDERMINSTER vicar has faced an ice bucket soaking after her congregation beat her fundraising target for Water Aid.

The Rev Jan Ashton challenged the members of Franche’s St Barnabas Church to raise £350 at their latest Harvest appeal, and if they did, she would face the drenching.

Jan said: “I thought £350 is a lot of money - there's no way we'd raise that much.

“Sadly for me, £394 was raised so I had to face the challenge.”

The children of the church wanted the money to be raised so much that one young boy even brought in a box full of pennies which he had been collecting from his relatives.

When the target figure was broken it left Jan having to settle the bet, so members of the church junior choir stepped up to pour the bucket of ice cold water over their vicar.

However, Jan was happy to know that a charity like Water Aid would be benefitting from her small sacrifice.

She added: “In the service we thought how precious water is and we thanked God we have plenty.

“It's terrible that so many people do not have access to clean water making Water Aid an essential charity.”