Vicar's wife Linda Davis is really getting into the spirit of the World Cup - by watching all 64 matches on TV for a good cause.

The mum-of-three, who lives at The Vicarage, Sowerby, Thirsk, hopes her marathon TV-watching stint will raise hundreds of pounds in sponsorship for a children's home in Romania.

Many women would rather ran a marathon than watch 5,760 minutes - or 96 hours - of footie: and that's before any extra time.

But Linda is soccer mad and a regular visitor to Bootham Crescent to cheer on York City.

And her family - husband John, Vicar of Sowerby and Sessay, and teenage children Sam, Tom and Sally - are all football fans too.

To add some more flavour to the football fiesta, she has been cooking up some culinary concoctions in the kitchen with a World Cup theme.

She said: "We had spag bol when Italy played and haggis for Scotland. For Germany it was sausages and sauerkraut, but all we ended up with for Jamaica was a chocolate bar."

She suspects Germany will win, but secretly hopes Italy will triumph - or at least make the final.

"I love Italian food, you see," she said.

All money raised will go towards Northern Aid for Romania.

Two friends, Terry and Wendy Bousfield, of Thirsk, are involved with charity work in Romania and will be heading out to Sattica, near Bucharest, in September, with supplies for locals. A key project is to built an extension for a children's home, which currently holds 550 children but is designed for only 250.

If you want to sponsor Linda, call her on (01845) 523546.

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