Facing his fear of spiders on a jungle trek is as dangerous as the nephew of fearless, globe-trotting binman Mad Mac wants to get.

Despite his Kidderminster uncle's tendency to holiday in the world's trouble-spots, Matthew Freemantle decided to take the safer option of a charity trek through the Amazonian rainforest of Equador.

But the trek, organised by the National Deaf Children's Society, held it's own perils for Matthew.

"Spiders. I can't stand spiders and we saw lots of them. At one point we got quite close to a tarantula that was as big as my hand. It had huge fangs and even the guides didn't want to go near it," he said.

The little spiders were just as worrying for Matthew as the big ones.

One of the trek guides felt something tickling his neck and found a black widow spider dangling from his hat.

Matthew, 27, said: "It wasn't just insects either, lots of the trees have poisonous spikes. You really need to concentrate which is hard in the heat."

Temperatures on the trek averaged 104 degrees F every day.

The trials of the trip were far outweighed by the rewards. A break at a lodge halfway through a five-hour trek brought a rare opportunity for Matthew and 15 fellow fundraisers to get close to the wild life.

Matthew, a mortgage adviser at Woolwich bank in Kidderminster, said: "There were all kinds of animals around including spider monkeys and parakeets. They are used to people and realise you have food, so they come over and let you hold them. It was amazing."

All the creepy crawlies on the 10-day trip in March have not put Matthew, of Severn Way, Bewdley, off travelling. He would like to do another charity trek around Tibet.

He said: "My uncle inspired me, but I don't fancy going to the trouble hotspots the way he does."