Two Macclesfield schoolchildren will be helping out those in need in an African nation, in what will be the trip of a lifetime.

Artie Tansey and Sam Bardsley, from Bollington, along with 28 other schoolchildren will jet off to Kenya to deliver humanitarian work next year.

The trip has been almost fully-funded this past weekend, thanks to the boys braving the heat to scale and scamper up White Nancy, to raise an incredible £1700.

(And you can still donate to the fundraiser HERE.)

The boys will head to Kenya to work alongside local people, getting involved in a range of sustainable projects, from community development to environmental conservation.

The athletic duo chose to go up and down White Nancy multiple times, to reach the equivalent of climbing Mount Kenya, which is 5200 metres.

In total, they went up the hill 32 times and down the hill 32 times. Meaning they went up and down the local landmark 64 times.

The Tytherington School duo needed to raise £8000 between them to pay for the trip, with their families covering some of the costs, and the rest raised by traversing White Nancy on Sunday.

"It feels really good to have completed the challenge. Many people thought we would be struggling," said Artie.

The lads are both 14, and are heading into their first year of GCSEs.

"We did it quicker than we anticipated, and raised more money than anticipated.

"We did it in 6 hours and 50 minutes. We expected to complete it in eight hours. We took seven breaks, but still had over an hour to spare."

The grateful friends had this to say to those who donated.

"Thank you very much to everyone who has donated," explained Artie.

"We have put hard work in to it, and we have been rewarded more than we expected really. It is thanks to them we can go really.

"Special thanks to the people who didn't know us, but saw us on the walk yesterday and decided to donate."

"We can't wait to learn more about the culture. I am really interested in traveling, especially being independent and to see whether I'd like to travel in the future. So we are really looking forward to going to Kenya."

Both lads have a knack for wishing to trot the globe, having both opted to study Mandarin for their GCSEs.

"It was easier than expected, and I really enjoyed it," said Sam.

"We raised £700 more than we intended to. We are really excited to go to Kenya.

"My sister went on a similar trip to Borneo last year, and she said it was really good. We are really looking forward to it."

"Thank you so much."

The Year 10 pupils will go on the trip next summer. With other fundraising activities throughout the school year also helping with the expense of the trip.

Once again, you can donate to support the boys' trip HERE.

Advertise your Macclesfield event for FREE on our What's On section.

Macclesfield: Have you signed up for our FREE Friday weekly newsletter? It contains each week's top five Macclesfield news stories, and one EXCLUSIVE article?

Simply enter your email address on this link.

Free from pop-up ads, or unwanted surveys, Macclesfield Nub News is a quality online newspaper for our town.

You can find us on Facebook and Twitter.