A TEENAGER who hopes to join the Royal Navy is raising more than £3,000 to do voluntary work in Africa - and to get some "life experience" before her career.

Felicity Wheeler, 18, will head to Ghana, for six months, in October to take on a variety of projects, which may include building toilet blocks for schools or clearing paths through nature reserves. school-leaver Felicity Wheeler kitted up for her charity trip for Ghana.

The former King Charles I High and Sladen Middle School student has already raised £2,300 of the £3,300 target set by youth development charity Raleigh International - and £600 was donated by the schools on condition she talks to pupils about the trip on her return.

"I want to travel, I don't want to be a tourist," she explained.

"I want to see how people actually live.

"It's going to be very basic - the showers are a bucket, the toilets are just holes in the ground."

Felicity, of Oldnall Road, Kidderminster, said the trip would be an ideal way to widen her horizons before fulfiling her dream of joining the Navy as a nurse.

She added: "I'd also like to go to Australia on a working visa.

"The Navy prefers you to have life experience."