The Bishop of Dudley will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of a Tanzanian hospital's maternity unit this August.

The Right Reverend David Walker will be leaving Worcester together with 13 others on 20 August to make the climb of nearly 20,000 feet.

The challenging climb will take them from the tropical heat of sub-Saharan Africa to the glacial region of the iconic mountain with its dangers of altitude sickness and temperatures possibly dropping to minus twenty.

The money raised will go towards medical offers caring for mothers at Berega Hospital in Morogoro so that there are fewer deaths among babies born there.

The Diocese of Worcester has had a partnership link with the Anglican Diocese of Morogoro since September 2010 and Bishop Walker visited the hospital last year.

Part of the funds will be spent bringing doctors from the UK to the hospital to share best practice in obstetric skills. The maternity unit will also receive medical equipment and medicines.

The group will be led by the Reverend Canon John Green, Chair of the World Church Links task group in the Diocese of Worcester.

He said: "It's going to be quite a challenge. Our group has an age spread of 51 years; we have two 18-years-olds and I am 69. It's an important cause though. The numbers of women who die in child birth in Tanzania are absolutely shocking."

There are plans to set up a regular link between obstetric consultants in the UK and those working in maternal health in hospitals in the Morogoro region on Tanzania.

Bishop Walker said: "It's going to be one of the most physically demanding things I've ever done, but when I visited the hospital last year and heard stories of women dying in childbirth because they lived in places too remote to get emergency medical care, I knew I had to do something to support them."

The team climbing Kilimanjaro have a dedicated fundraising page at: http://mydonate.bt.com/events/kilimanjarochallengeforberegahospital/101547