ADVENTUROUS fund-raisers chipped in more than £2,000 during a special event at Worcester Cathedral.

Rob Caskie, one of the world’s leading adventure lecturers, gave the 2013 English Mutual Lecture, giving attendees an insight into the Antarctic expeditions of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton.

Mr Caskie, who hails from Natal, South Africa, was a safari guide and wildlife film maker before gaining fame for his guided tours of the Zulu War battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift.

Since 2004, he has lectured extensively and in 2010 addressed the Royal Geog-aphic Society in London.

He was the first speaker when the Worcester-based wealth management company launched its annual fund-raising lecture series in 2006 in aid of the English Mutual Foundation.

Since then, English Mutual has become part of San-lam, the international AA-rated finance group, and Mr Caskie was welcomed back by Sanlam’s head of marketing and PR, Giles Cross.

The event also featured music from the Nero String Quartet, with money raised being donated to a fund set up by English Mutual to support the young son of a staff member who has been left without parental support.