A FORMER Evesham schoolgirl is taking on the challenge of a lifetime next month as she attempts to tackle the white-water rivers of British Columbia.

Charlotte Gwilliam will travel to Whitehorse in Canada, on Thursday, August 24 with three friends from the University of Birmingham to raise money for The Brasov Orphanage Fund in Romania.

The team will be canoeing around 180 miles along the Big Salmon River into the Yukon River and a further 300 miles to get to their finish point in Dawson in Yukon Territory, Canada, making the trip almost 500 miles of hard work.

The foursome hope to complete the challenge in around 13 days and in doing so raise more than £3,000 for the charity, which aims to rehouse orphans in the Transylvanian city of Brasov.

Charlotte said: "The paddle will take us to a very remote area of Canada and through stunning scenery and if we are lucky we will see a hoard of exciting wildlife.

"On a personal level this trip will be a great opportunity to escape the rush of modern life and to raise money for a very worthy cause."

The group are all members of the University of Birmingham's Canoe Club, where the idea was first mooted and have experience of tackling rivers in the UK and some have even canoed along white-water routes across Europe.

To find out more about the trip visit www.yukon.natrice.co.uk or call Charlotte on 07788 971066 or Rhodri Anderson on 07738 231889 to make a contribution to the team's fundraising efforts.