DARING churchman Father Graham Piper took a step closer to heaven in a charity mission to save his church roof from collapse -- and raised more than double the target amount.

Father Graham, who suffers from vertigo, challenged himself to spend almost 48 hours camping 15ft up on the roof of St Aidan's Church, in Bamber Bridge, to raise money for his leaking roof.

He was hoping that members of the public and parishioners would save him from having to stay up there any longer than necessary and collect the much-needed £3,000 in time for his proposed 5pm deadline on Saturday. And their generosity did not fail him as the roof-top stunt raised more than £6,000 by midday on Saturday, leaving Fr Graham time to come down and enjoy a well-deserved barbecue and much-needed shower and sleep.

He said: "Raising so much is absolutely fantastic, people have been so generous and I never dreamed we would get the amount we have.

"My voice was quite hoarse by the end as I had had so many conversations with people passing by down below.

"These included one quite bizarre chat with a lady at midnight on Friday."