AN INSPIRATIONAL grandmother is setting her sights on the summit of Europe in her latest fundraising challenge.

Wendy Bainbridge, who works at the Joseph Weld Hospice in Dorchester, is taking on Mont Blanc in a charity challenge this summer.

The 71-year-old is taking part in a five-day trek around the Alpine peak to raise funds for the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust.

Wendy has been given a helping hand in her fundraising mission by local car dealership Heritage Volkswagen.

They have offered former customer Wendy a raffle prize of a car to use for the weekend and tickets will soon be available at the dealership and at the Weldmar hospice for the raffle.

Wendy works as a clinical supervisor at the hospice and has worked for the charity since before the hospice was even built in 1994, previously working in the community as a specialist palliative care nurse.

At the age of 53 Wendy took up running and run her first marathon in 1997.

Since then she has completed a marathon every year, except last year when she ran a half marathon instead.

Altogether she has completed 16 full marathons and around 40 half marathons and raised funds for Weldmar, Amnesty International, Prostate Cancer, Guide Dogs, Save the Children and the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

After completing the Icelandic Marathon in 2013 Wendy decided she no longer wanted to run marathons but was determined to keep up her fundraising efforts.

She has previously walked the 500-mile Camino de Santiago in northern Spain on three occasions and the Mont Blanc trek seemed like a fitting opportunity to raise funds for a cause close to her heart.

She said: "After the Iceland marathon I decided I did not want to run any more marathons and I work for the hospice so I know where the goes and how much it is needed."

Wendy said she was hugely grateful to the support from Heritage Volkswagen and was delighted with the general response she had received from those she had approached for support.

Sales manager at Heritage Volkswagen Chris Sansom said his company was delighted to support Wendy in her efforts and in turn support a local charity.

He added that he hoped the offer of the car for the weekend would encourage people to buy the raffle tickets when they go on sale.

Chris said: "I think it's a good incentive for somebody."

Wendy will be taking on the Mont Blanc trek with the Weldmar team from August 5 to August 9.

To sponsor her for the challenge visit justgiving.com/Wendy-Bainbridge