Colleagues abseil down Northampton's lift tower dressed as Hallowe'en characters

Staff members at Barratt Homes Northampton abseiled down the National Lift Tower dressed as Hallowe’en characters to raise money for The British Red Cross.

The team, made up of four members of staff managed to raise more than £1,200 for the charity from the abseil and other fundraising events.

The National Lift Tower, which stands at 418ft tall, offers an extreme abseiling experience and is the tallest permanent abseil tower in the world.

The team who tackled the tower on Saturday October 29 included Laura Green, an operations administrator, safety, health and environmental administrator Sarah Turner, Emma Croxford a CAD technician and Keely Warren, marketing assistant.

In the spirit of Halloween, the women dressed as their favourite spooky characters with Emma as the Grim Reaper, Laura as a vampire, Sarah as a spider and Keely as a witch.

Keely said: “We were all very nervous doing the abseil as even though you get a fantastic view at the top it’s very scary and hard to stay calm.

“It was initially very challenging as there was over 400 feet worth of rope which was heavy, that you had to push through to get down, about half way it got easier, as the rope was lighter.

“We were all so pleased to raise money for a worthwhile charity whilst representing Barratt Homes Northampton at the same time.”

In total the staff members managed to raise £1,202.40 which was from the abseil, a dress down day at Barratt Homes Northampton’s head office and a Halloween themed feast.

All of the money raised will now be donated to The British Red Cross, which is a volunteer-led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis across the globe.

Andrew Swindell, managing director at Barratt Homes Northampton, said: “Our hard-working staff wanted to do something a little daring to help raise money for The British Red Cross and what better way than to do a challenging abseil?

“We are delighted to hear that the team managed to raise more than £1,000 for such a worthy cause and our proud that our staff members are making a conscious effort to help charities like The British Red Cross.

“Here at Barratt Homes Northampton we understand how important it is for a company like ourselves to support charities by raising vital funds and we aim to help different causes throughout the year including the air ambulance which we chose as our charity of the year.”