A RADCLIFFE man who created a female alter ego to raise money for charity raised nearly £2,000 with his annual barbecue.

Derek Williams, 58, and his wife Lorraine held their fifth pink barbecue at their home to raise money for Cancer Research. Mr Williams dressed up as his female alter ego, Delores, for the event.

He created the alter ego four years ago to be able to enter in to Race For Life, a charity race open for women, and it has gone on from there. The family hold the barbecue every year to raise money for the national charity, which they chose because of close family members who had died as a result of the disease.

The latest fundraising barbecue was a great success, raising £1,825.

Delores set a fundraising target of £3,000 for the year and the money from the barbecue meant that he has already raised 95 per cent of it.

A s part of the event there was a pink balloon release where guests could write messages and some have been found in Germany and Holland.

Mrs Williams, aged 56, said: “Cancer Research is a charity very close to our heart as we have got close family and friends who have had cancer.

“So we wanted to do as much as we could to raise money. The barbecue is a lot of effort each year and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

“We pay for everything ourselves to put it on, we don’t use any of the money donated to put it on.

“Sometimes we do think it would be a lot easier to just donate the money we spend putting it on to the charity and leave it at that, but this way we raise more money.”

Delores’ next event is the Three Peaks Challenge. To sponsor him, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/deloreschallenge2016.