SISTERS-in-law Jackie and Julie Bowker performed a Great Escape for charity - by travelling from Skipton to Manchester while handcuffed together!
Jackie and Julie, who both work as dispense opticians at Clayton-le-Moors firm Optical Direct, have raised over £1,460 after completing the MacMillan Cancer Support Challenge, in which teams of two travel together in a blacked-out coach from Strangeways Prison to a mystery location and have to find their way back.
The pairs are shackled together and given no money, map, mobile phone or valuables. They have to get back within hours through blagging favours.
Jackie, of Rose Bank, Clayton-le-Moors, and Julie, of Meadoway, Church, were given £5 towards a taxi to Broughton. Then, after walking for a while, they were given a lift to Boundary Mill, followed by free buses to Nelson and Burnley, where they got stuck for about an hour.
Eventually three women paid for their fare to Manchester, where they got to the Printworks and collared two men to “piggy-back” them up two flights of stairs.
In total it took them under four hours to get back to the welcome party.
Jackie, 41, said: “You could wear whatever you wanted and because we are from an optician’s our team name was Sight for Sore Eyes. MacMillan nursed my grandad and they also nursed our father-in-law so it’s a good cause dear to both of our hearts.”
Julie, 35, added: “We had lots of cars beeping at us and all the teams went on different routes. We had a fab time and we’ve registered for next year already.”
Jackie and Julie are still collecting sponsorship and a form is on display at Optical Direct on Burnley Road.
