BRAVE adventurers are to take on the mighty Mount Everest to help complete the work of a Kidderminster man killed in Iraq.neighbours Mark Humphries and Stuart Williams are to climb Everest to rsie money for the Ian Rimell fund.

Neighbours Stuart Williams and Mark Humphries want to raise £6,000 for the Ian Rimell Fund, named after the bomb disposal expert who died in a roadside ambush south of Mosul two months ago.

The pair said they were spurred into action after reading about the plight of the 53-year-old's son, Simon, in the Shuttle/Times and News.

Simon, 19, urged readers to start a fundraising drive to rebuild a school in the war-torn country, a project his father was working on just hours before the attack on September 4.

Mark, 44, of Egret Court, Kidderminster, said: "Ian Rimell lived only a few hundred feet away from Stuart and I. To think someone so close to home was out there, risking his life, trying to defuse mines to give other people a chance to lead normal lives shocked me.

"On my normal estate with normal houses and normal people - there was a real life hero."

The trek will take the neighbours to Base Camp Everest, two thirds and 5,545 metres of the way up the highest mountain in the world, in Nepal.

However, the self-employed businessmen first need to raise £2,650 to kickstart the challenge for the Mines Advisory Group, which set up the fund in honour of MAG employee Ian.

And the firms which employ Mark and Stuart, Renault and Schneider Electric, have already put some cash in the kitty to help them on their quest.

"There is half the amount of oxygen at Everest than at sea level," said Mark, who has scaled Snowdon and is soon to tackle Ben Nevis with outdoor accomplice Stuart, 38.

"It's going to be quite a challenge because most people find it hard to acclimatise. So we're going down the gym and doing as much hill climbing as we can to prepare."

To sponsor the two, call Mark Humphries on 07970 516171.

l If you wish to publicise an event in the Shuttle/Times & News to raise money for the Ian Rimell Fund, please contact Oliver Evans on 01562 633340.