A Ford dealer has become involved in this winter's bid by Sir Ranulph Fiennes to cross the Antarctic.

Burns Garages of Congleton has supplied Fiennes and his team with a Ford Transit minibus for his preparations for the expedition.

Owner Robert Burns said: "Sir Ranulph has been a customer of ours for quite some time and a friend. He called me up to ask if I could help, he wanted to take a team of 12 mechanics to Sweden, to see how suitable they would be to take away."

Sir Ranulph, aged 68, will brave temperatures of minus 50C during the expedition next year when his group will make the trip called the Coldest Journey On Earth.

The challenge is the latest feat of endurance by the explorer who is hoping to raise £6.17 million for Seeing Is Believing, a charitable initiative to tackle avoidable blindness around the world.