STAFF and members of the public abseiled down Warrington Hospital on Sunday morning to raise money for projects on the children’s ward and dementia unit.

A total of 18 people abseiled 60ft down the medical education centre at the Lovely Lane site in order to raise funds for the Warrington and Halton Hospitals Charity – more than double the number that faced the drop last year.

Six staff members at the hospital were joined by teams from Tesco and shredding company Shred It as fundraisers abseiled down the building for a third year in a row.

An estimated £1,500 has been raised by the abseil, with participants opting whether to donate the money they raised towards specific ongoing projects or to the charity in general.

Helen Higginson, the hospital’s charity fundraising manager, said: “This year we’ve got six of our own staff and a couple of companies who have come on board to do the abseil.

“It’s all really good fun and hopefully we’ve raise a lot of money from it.

“Participants are able to choose to donate to our different funds, so some people have chosen to raise money for some of the campaigns that we’ve got running, including our ones for the children’s ward and the dementia unit.

“Some other people have just done it for the hospital charity in general, which is really nice because everyone is then able to utilise that fund.

“I’m hoping that we can hit a target of £1,500 which would be fabulous and is above and beyond what we’ve set for people to raise.

“In addition to the abseil, we’ll be looking to do a mile-long zip wire in Anglesey next year which I’m aiming to do myself.”