A fundraising group raised over £4,000 for a Workington girl by eating "the hottest curry in Cumbria".

The Xtreme 13 group took on the challenge to help six-year-old Emily Shutt, who is fighting leukaemia.

Emily, of Railbank Drive, was diagnosed with leukaemia aged two.

Her family are hoping she will qualify for a medical trial at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital and they are raising money to help them with the costs.

Xtreme 13 raised £4,105 against their initial target of £2,000 by eating "the hottest curry in Cumbria" - a chicken phal from Maryport Tandoori - at the Sailors Return in the town.

Founding member Glen Boylan, 51, said: "We can't believe how much we've raised. We're all very proud to have taken part and it's amazing how much we've achieved from a daft idea.

"The decision to support Emily was unanimous after we'd read in the paper about the hard time she was having.

"This will hopefully help her in her treatment and we of course wish her a complete recovery."

Helen Johnson, Emily's mum, said: "I'm lost for words. The support has been absolutely fantastic.

"They're a lovely bunch of guys and it was lovely to meet them all. I just can't thank them enough.

"We're still a long way off, but this for us is a little step forward to getting my little girl better."

This was supposed to be group's thirteenth and last challenge, but Glen said they decided to carry on due to people's support and encouragement.

They have spent the last 10 years completing mammoth tasks and crazy stunts in the name of charity.

For their first challenge, back in 2006, 19 people and a border collie swam in 13 Cumbrian lakes in one day.

Their other challenges ranged from carrying the contents of a house 13 kilometres to collecting 13,000 1p, 2p and 5p coins.

Glen said the worst was eating items from a macabre menu featuring dishes including frogs’ legs, chocolate-covered giant ants, fish eyes, salt and vinegar crickets, sugar-coated scorpion and giant crispy chilli worms.