Sir Ranulph Fiennes helps Essex & Suffolk Water raise more than £22,000 for Wateraid

Intrepid explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has helped Essex & Suffolk Water raise more than £22,000 which will go towards enabling people in the developing world gain access to clean water.

The utility company organised the charity event ‘An Exclusive Evening with Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ in association with ESH Construction and MJK Sportsevents. It was held at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London and raised £22,100 in total.

The money will support international charity WaterAid in its work to transform the lives of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people through improved access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

Essex & Suffolk Water’s chief executive, Heidi Mottram OBE, who introduced Sir Ranulph on stage, visited Malawi in 2015 to see WaterAid’s work.

She said: “This is an amazing charity, with great people who are making a difference to the lives of so many.

“A close source of fresh, safe drinking water can allow people to take control of their lives and make a better future for themselves and their families.”

A second evening event staged in Durham by Essex & Suffolk Water’s parent company Northumbrian Water Group helped take the combined total to £30,500.

Sir Ranulph was described by The Guinness Book of Records as “the world’s greatest living explorer” in 1984 and is the only man alive to have circumnavigated the Earth along its polar axis,

Chairman of the WaterAid Committee at Essex & Suffolk Water, Andrew Blakemore, added: “Just like Sir Ranulph, WaterAid doesn’t shirk from harsh environments in its efforts to make a real difference in the world, improving the lives of people who need it the most, because they don’t have access to basic sanitation and hygiene.”