Harborough schoolboy plans to head to Costa Rica next year to help the local community - but he needs your help

But he needs to raise just under £5,000 to be able to reach his ambition.

Marcus Penchev, 15, signed up for a Camps International expedition after their presentation at Welland Park Academy, where Marcus attends.

He will take four weeks from his summer holiday to do community development work to raise the educational and the living standards of developing communities within a rural district of Costa Rica.

He has created a GoFundMe page - https://gofund.me/bc489f98 - to collect online donations and to tell people more about the expedition.

In April he started a sponsored bike ride where he will be cycling a total of 300 miles, or the vertical length of Costa Rica. He has been asking businesses and charities for a sponsorship in return for him advertising their company’s logo on a t-shirt he has created. He is wearing the t-shirt to all fundraising events and also he will take it to Costa Rica to show that those companies helped him get there.

He has cycled about 100 miles so far and is well within his target to complete the challenge by summer. He has also raised £3,728 in three months and he has managed to raise this amount to date by business sponsorship, funds from grants, car washing, gardening, selling small goods at craft fairs, and private donations. He is also participating in school bake sale fundraisers.