A CAR wash has raised more than £1,100 to help send a sick Birchwood firefighter to America for treatment.

Fire crews and cadets from Ellesmere Port spent a soapy Saturday cleaning cars to boost funds for their colleague Vic Washby, who has motor neurone disease.

And they travelled to Birchwood last Friday to hand over the cheque to the Blue Watch firefighter, who will soon be jetting off to Wisconsin to take part in clinical trials.

Vic, aged 37, has been accepted on a trial at the Wisconsin-Madison Medical School into the use of Tamoxifen for the treatment of the muscle wasting disease.

Friends and colleagues have spent months raising the £7,000 needed to pay for the journey. Stockton Heath firefighters even raffled themselves off as slaves for a day back in July.

Vic says: "I should find out any day now what my dates are for going off to America.

"I really have been overwhelmed by all the support I've received."