A team of firewalkers is getting hot under the collar after they raised at least £2,700 for the charity Marie Curie - and more money is still coming in.
Twenty-four people dared walk barefoot across the glowing embers in the event organised by Marie Curie’s St Ives fundraising group.
The money will go in to the charity’s pot for supporting people with terminal illnesses, including some funding Cambridge-based research into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Peter Sara, Marie Curie community fundraiser for Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, said: “It went very, very well. We had 24 participants in the firewalk all together.
“At the moment we do not know exactly how much we have raised but it is £2,700 so far and more is still coming in. We are very pleased, the whole day went very well and we are hoping it will keep going up and up.”
Peter said: “I actually signed up for it on the day - or was coerced into it on the day.
“They laid out logs for a bonfire which was 300 degrees centigrade and was then left to cool down, but it was still over 100 degrees centigrade.”
He said: “The feeling was like walking on boiling hot sand like you would get on a Mediterranean beach.”
Peter said the event, at St Ives Rugby Club, had a great atmosphere and that around 75 spectators were present to cheer the firewalkers on.
He said one participant raised more than £700 and in some cases employers matched the amount raised by the walkers.
Peter said that some of the money would also go to the charity’s help line which would attract around 215 callers in the two counties this year and 10,000 across the country.
He said Marie Curie was not just a cancer charity but supported people with a wide range of terminal illnesses and their families.
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