Blair Harrison is a former pupil of Forfar Academy whose interest in Project Trust was sparked by a visitor to the school recounting their own experience working abroad.

Blair then applied online and after a four-day selection course on the Isle of Coll, was chosen to be one of approximately 200 volunteers that Project Trust sends to over 25 countries annually.

The seventeen-year-old has secured a place teaching maths and science at a secondary school in the South American country of Guyana and there is a strong possibility that the Letham teen may be based in a small frontier town called Lethem.

Blair explained: "In the newsletter from Project Trust I read about a volunteer who was in Guyana and they are based in Lethem so there is a chance I could be based there too, which would be quite a coincidence coming from Letham."

As the trip is self-funded for costs such as travel and insurance, Blair has organised a number of fund-raising activities to help him reach a total of £4850 by July, with more ideas, such as bag packing and a band night, in the pipeline.

So far Blair, who works part-time in Tesco, Arbroath, has booked a bungee jump in Glasgow on February 20 and a bingo tea night in the Royal British Legion, Forfar, on March 17.

on his return from this 12-month educational experience, blair hopes to go to university to study politics, international relations and psychology and has already been accepted for Dundee University.

But first Blair will travel 4,806 miles for a year's educational experience in Guyana, living and working with people in communities very different from the one in which he has grown up.

For more information on Blair's fundraising visit the Just Giving website (www.justgiving.com/blair-harrison).