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YOUNG explorer Justin Argent is seeking sponsors to help him take part in a three-month expedition to the Arctic.

Justin, 18, of Messings Farm, Cornish Hall End, will join a team of 24 young explorers and six team leaders on the research expedition by the British Schools' Expedition Society.

Justin is a former pupil of Steeple Bumpstead Primary School and has just finished his A-levels at The Perse School in Cambridge.

He was a finalist in the News Community Challenge Awards earlier this year and put his £100 prize towards the expedition.

The trip, which leaves next April, will take Justin to the Arctic island of Svalbard, also known as Spitsbergen, where there will be 24 hour daylight and the sea will be frozen.

The team will train to survive in temperatures down to minus 40C , then travel into the wilderness on foot, hauling sledges behind them.

The area is known as Europe's last remaining wildernesses and is home to 3,000 polar bears, as well as well as millions of sea birds.

The expedition will undertake scientific, art and environmental project work.

Justin has been working on the family farm to help earn some money and has already raised £1,000 of the £3,800 he needs to take part in the expedition.

Anyone wishing to sponsor Justin should ring (01440) 730577.

CAPTION: Cold comfort ... Justin will brave temperatures of minus 40C.