A Northallerton man and his girlfriend will come face to face with sharks in a novel attempt to raise money for their local hospital.

Mr Stuart Kite and Miss Elaine Strachan will have to learn to scuba dive, however, before they take the plunge at the Blue Planet aquarium created four years ago on the site of a former quarry at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

They will dive without a protective cage to meet some of the 11 hand-fed shark species which are listed among the 2,500 aquatic animals in what has been described as a spectacular live theatre.

All money raised by Mr Kite and Miss Strachan will help to buy a £6,000 diothermy machine for the endoscopy suite of the day unit at the Friarage hospital, Northallerton.

The highlight of the aquarium is the main Caribbean tropical reef tank, more than 20ft at its deepest point, where a shimmering reef has been recreated as a habitat for an array of fish and one of Europe's largest collections of sharks. A large window looks into the deepest part of the tank.

Mr Kite, a 24-year-old porter in the day unit, and Miss Strachan, a 23-year-old trainee manager at the Golden Lion hotel, Northallerton, will make their dive on March 15.

Mr Kite said: "A friend of mine works at Blue Planet and had the idea that, as we were going to do it for charity, we could have a go for nothing."

He added: "We have never done any scuba diving before, so that is the thing we are not particularly certain about at the moment, but we have got to learn it all the same."

Sponsorship for Mr Kite and Miss Strachan should be sent to the Friarage day unit, but there will also be a collection box in the Golden Lion.