THREE brave teenagers decided to do something a bit different to raise money for charity. Clad in outlandish fancy dress outfits, Alice Burton, from St Albans, and her friends Emma Livingston and Dawn Drean ran into the freezing-cold sea in Brighton and r

THREE brave teenagers decided to do something a bit different to raise money for charity.

Clad in outlandish fancy dress outfits, Alice Burton, from St Albans, and her friends Emma Livingston and Dawn Drean ran into the freezing-cold sea in Brighton and raised more than �800 for charity in the process.

The girls, who all attend Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls in Elstree, completed the challenge as part of a fundraising project called the Wings of Hope Achievement Award.

It's a scheme for students to get together for around four months to raise money for the charity Wings of Hope, which provides free education to children living in poverty in Malawi and India.

Emma, 16, said: "We didn't want to do a typical charity sponsored run or something similar, but we thought that going into the sea in February was impressive enough and us doing it in fancy dress made a ridiculous enough image to get us sponsorship.

"The actual run was freezing cold and the few other people on the beach were staring at us, they even took photos. Getting changed after was difficult as our hands were so completely numb.

"But we have raised well over �800 so it was well worth it."

Emma, Dawn, 17, and Alice, 16, who lives in Potters Field, have also been collecting old and broken mobile phones to sell on to recycling sites which has raised over �400.

In addition, they have run several cake sales at their school and organised a host of other events including visits to another local school and brownie packs to raise awareness about the charity.

To sponsor the girls retrospectively visit their website at http://www.justgiving.com/group-phoenix