A SPORTS charity set up in memory of a former Malvern schoolgirl has been given £1,000 – bringing the total it has raised to £45,000 in 12 months.

Richard Brown, the founder of The Joanna Brown Trust, was presented with the cheque on a high wire among treetops by staff from Go Ape, a high wire adventure company.

He set up the trust after his sister, Joanna Brown, fell to her death while walking in Siberia in August last year. Miss Brown, who died aged 30, was a former pupil of Dyson Perrins Sports College, Malvern. She loved sports and had travelled to the Beijing Olympics before the trip.

The Trust aimed to provide sporting equipment and to encourage people to experience activities and excel at sport. It has raised thousands of pounds since obtaining charity status in September 2008. Mr Brown said: “We are absolutely delighted that Go Ape has selected us as their charity of choice as we both share a similar aim of trying to get more people to be active and adventurous.

“The Joanna Brown Trust will match the £1,000 donation we received and 100 per cent of that money will go towards a local project.

“We will work closely with contacts we have in the area to identify a worthy cause, one that will meet both Go Ape’s ethos and ours.”

A £1,000 donation is being made to local community charities and not-for-profit organisations by each of the 21 Go Ape courses as part of the company’s national charitable giving programme during 2009.

Mr Brown was given the donation at Go Ape’s Wyre Forest course in Bewdley.

More information about Go Ape is available by calling 0845 6432034 or by visiting goape.co.uk.