CHARITY champion Ernest Rudd is fit as a fiddle.

And it's a good job too, because the 79-year-old, of Myddleton Lane, Winwick, is set to swim 80 lengths of Fordton Leisure Centre's swimming pool on Tuesday - a week before his 80th birthday!

Mr Rudd is fundraising for Macmillan Cancer Support and St Oswald's Church.

Supporting the two causes is important to the pensioner because his wife, Joan, was a valued member of the church choir until her death, in September 2000.

He said: "Prior to her passing, my wife received the dedicated care of the Macmillan nurses, for which our family was truly grateful.

"I think they provide a wonderful service and well and truly deserve financial support."

Mr Rudd began his involvement with St Oswald's when he came to the village 50 years ago, in 1957.

His daughters, Christine and Gillian, were baptised and married at the church, where Gillian also worked as a Sunday school teacher in the 1980s, and Mr Rudd is still an active member of the congregation.

If you would like to sponsor Mr Rudd, contact reporter Neil Docking on 434114, by e-mailing him at ndocking@guardiangrp.co.uk, or by writing to him at The Warrington Guardian, The Academy, 138 Bridge Street, Warrington WA1 2RU.