How far do you think you could get from where you live in 48 hours? The catch of course is that you can’t spend any money other than what you raise during that time – you can only hitchhike or raise money for transport from strangers along the way
Well, two adventure-seeking Edinburgh University students, Archie and Finn, managed to make it all the way from the Scottish capital to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, raising awareness of meningitis and funds to help fight back against it every step of the way. That’s a journey of about 2,000 miles, give or take.
They were taking part in a university challenge event called Race2Escape in memory of their friend Jago Ainslie, who died from group B meningococcal meningitis in December. Read more on his story.
Brilliant time
Archie told us: “We had a brilliant time, and it was a great way to raise money for Meningitis Now and awareness of meningitis, as we had fun the whole way.
“We have ended up raising well over £1,000, and we our very proud.
“This is how we did it. On the first day, the Friday, we set off at 11:30 along with all of the other teams.
“We were not allowed to spend any of our own money on transport, so we decided to go straight to the Royal Mile in Edinburgh to ask for donations in cash. We raised around £40 here, and then went on to our uni campus and raised a further £50.
Cheapest flights
“At this point we called a flight booking agent, and asked what the cheapest flights next day were. He told us we could either go to Istanbul for £120, or go to Tenerife for £88. We decided to go to Tenerife, and booked our flights there and then on the side of the street.
“The slight catch was that our flights were from Glasgow, so we now had to make it there. As soon as we had booked the flights we went back to our uni accommodation and packed some more suitable clothing for Tenerife weather in our bags, and also picked up our Young Scot cards – these allow us to have free bus travel all over Scotland.
“We then went straight to the bus stop and got the next bus to Glasgow. Once in Glasgow we stayed the night in a hostel, and early in the morning went to the airport to board our midday flight. Whilst in the airport we continued to raise money, and managed to raise a further £50 in cash.
“One of the other groups in the competition ended up joining us in Tenerife (only telling us as we were getting to the plane!) which was fun, although they took a different route (through France first!).
Joint second in the competition
“Once we arrived in Tenerife on the Saturday evening we decided we would stay there, as there was a possibility of us trying to get flights into Africa, but our insurance would not cover that and we also had to be cautious of the money it would cost us to get back.
“We ended up coming joint second in the competition, beaten only by a team that had made it all the way to Cyprus.
“Overall it was an amazing experience, extremely hectic at times but something I would definitely do again and recommend to everyone.”
Our Fundraising Officer Claire Ellis said: “Well done Archie and Finn – what a great adventure and achievement and well done on reaching Tenerife. Thank you for taking on this challenge in memory of Jago and for raising such a great amount for Meningitis Now and such great awareness of meningitis.”
Are you planning on taking on a fundraising challenge? Let us know if so, so we can say thank you.
