It was a revealing day for everyone at the Hampshire Riding Therapy Centre when Roger Collins decided that masochism was the best course of action to help the charity raise funds to buy a new horsebox.

He volunteered to be waxed and stripped of all his upper body hair to raise money for the centre.

This involved people paying for the privilege of waxing a portion of Roger's body and enjoying the screams of pain as they ripped the hair away.

Roger's own children particularly took to the exercise and would willingly have taken out a mortgage for more turns!

The whole event was supervised by local beautician, Amy du Toit, who painstakingly taught all participants how to do the task as painlessly as possible but most seemed to prefer to ignore her advice and just rip away.

Roger is hoping that the event will raise over £500 towards the cost of a new horsebox which it is anticipated will cost £15,000 or more.

After the event was over Roger, who lives at The Quadrangle, Bishopstoke, said: "I'm not sure I'd do that again but it was worth it for the horsebox which allows the children to compete away from the centre."

Kerie Coutts, founder of the centre in Colden Common, said: "We are extremely grateful to Roger for this event as the horsebox is very important to all the children.

"Raising the self-esteem and self-confidence of the special-needs children attending here is very important to us and competition helps us with that aim so the horsebox provides an invaluable support to the therapy and since our old horsebox had to be taken off the road we hope that a new one is not too far away, although we all know we still have an awful lot more to do to raise the necessary money.'"

If you would like to help, ring Kerie Coutts at Hampshire Riding Therapy Centre on 01962-777714.