A compliance assistant who rode a husky-driven sled across 112km of arctic wilderness for charity said the experience has given him a taste for adventure.

Richmond and Twickenham Times:

Leader of the pack: The hardest thing was saying goodbye 

Samuel Newman, 26, braved -40C conditions during the five-day expedition in Lapland with the four-dog team and returned on February 3.

Mr Newman, who works for A&A in Hampton Hill, has raised more than £2,600 for charity African Revival, which is dedicated to improving education in Uganda and Zambia, and said the task was even harder than he first imagined.

He said: "Being in the wilderness was hard. Chopping wood and dog food and getting fresh water from a stream, bringing it up a steep hill in the freezing cold.

"We had a thin pair of gloves we wore under our thick mittens, but as soon as you took them off your hands would freeze."

Mr Newman hopes to raise a further £500 for the Hampton Hill charity, through a mufti day at work and a car boot sale, and said completing the Lapland challenge had inspired him to tackle more expeditions.

He said: "I have got a bit of a buzz for it now and I am looking at doing a Mount Kilimanjaro challenge in 2016. Doing something like this and knowing you have raised a lot of money for charity is a great feeling."

Mr Newman said one of the hardest things was having to say goodbye to the team of dogs that had dragged his sled for five days.

He said: "They look scary but they are good as gold."

Make donations at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SamuelNewman1.