Their signing up alongside two walkers, who also became impromptu team members, meant 35 people took a leap of faith to abseil the 128ft tower to raise more than £5,250 for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Charity, which organised the event as a fundraiser to support projects that will benefit patients being treated at the Royal Preston and Chorley and South Ribble Hospitals.
Charity team fundraiser Lucy Clark said: "It was fantastic Martin and Janet decided to join in as originally, they were there just to support Lisa, who works in organisational development for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and who was raising funds for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Motor Neurone Disease Care and Research Centre at the Royal Preston Hospital.
"They weren't our only on the day sign-ups either as two walkers passed by and also decided to join our brave team. One was a lady in her 70s, who told me abseiling had been on her bucket list for more than 40 years!"
The abseil was the third annual abseil organised by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Charity and the second sponsored by Preston architects FWP Ltd, which had a group of 10 staff and family members take part. Among them were associate director James Halsall and his daughter Amy Halsall, who abseiled to raise funds for sister charity Baby Beat in support of mums-to-be, new mums and newborns.
Lucy added: "Massive congratulations to all our abseilers and thank you to everyone who sponsored them and came to support them. Thank you to FWP Ltd, whose sponsorship meant we were able to subsidise the event's cost to make it more affordable for people to take part and thanks also to our abseil experts, the team from Alternative Adventure. They made the day possible by literally showing our abseilers the ropes. They were also a source of never ending encouragement.”
Peel Tower was built in 1852 as a tribute to Bury-born Sir Robert Peel, founder of the police force and prime minister from 1834-1835 and 1841-1846.
For further information on the charity team’s work, see https://lthcharity.org.uk and
