Skip to main content

jonathan-breen
2nd November 2012

Students reach Poland in RAG charity hitch

Teams made it to Germany, Switzerland and Poland in Jailbreak 2012
Categories:
TLDR

Students took to planes, trains, ferries and any other form of transport they could as part of the annual charity event ‘Jailbreak’ last week.

Some made it to Belgium, Germany and Poland. But some didn’t make even it out of Owens Park.

Starting at 4:00pm on Friday October 26, the event – hosted by the University of Manchester Students’ Union division of Raise and Give, or RAG – saw students try and get as far away from Manchester as they could in 30 hours, all without out spending a penny.

This year’s winners, ‘Dilworth 3’, made it to Krakow, Poland.

“We officially got to Berlin in the 30 hours, but we thought we might as well try and get as far as we could,” said team member Tara Murphy. “We were in the lorry in Germany when the time was up, but at that point we already knew we were going to Poland.”

According to RAG, the rules are if you are in a mode of transport like a plane, or in this case a lorry, when the 30 hours are up, it is where you get off that counts as your final destination, regardless of the time.

“We started by going north to Newcastle then got the night coach to London then got another night coach to Dover, where we got in the lorry,” said Miss Murphy, speaking on Thursday evening. “We literally just haven’t left the lorry, we got in at Dover, then we went to Berlin, then to Krakow then Warsaw.

“We have been doing deliveries with the driver and we’ve been picking up things and we stayed with the driver’s family in Warsaw.
“We’ve been pretty much living off snacks, in Warsaw the driver’s family cooked for us.”

The trio, who also included Lewis Haines and Joshua Brown, finally got back to Manchester on Friday morning, six days after the official finish.

Participants of the event have until December 16 to raise at least £120 through sponsorship, or failing that a deposit check of the same amount is cashed, the proceeds of which go to KidsCan, a children’s cancer research charity.

Teams usually receive donations based on reaching a certain destination. Friends of ‘Dilworth 3’ chose to give £30 if they reached Berlin.

The first team out of the country were ‘When in Rome’, who found themselves on the way to Belgium after sneaking on to the Eurostar at St. Pancras International, London.

“We got to St. Pancras, got pretty drunk, and fancied going to Paris,” said one team member, a first year Music Production student. “So we ran past the security people on the Eurostar. The girls with us got kicked off the train by security. But we snuck past security doing James Bond-esque stuff.

“We were officially the first team out of the country. We were screaming on the train, everyone around us thought ‘what the hell are these guys doing.’”

Once in Brussels, the pair’s plan was to head east, “to Germany and Russia, but we got in at 10pm, there were no trains outbound so we had to spend the night in Brussels paid for by “generous donations”, some Liverpool guys on the train got us a room for the night.”
‘When in Rome’ eventually managed to make it as far as Koblenz, Germany.

For Lisa Williams, one half of team Destination Unknown, who made it to Brussels, the experience was” the best and worst weekend of my life,” said the chemistry student. “There were times when I wanted to just sit down and cry.

“It was so good, it was incredible, but there are times when I think ‘why would you do that to yourself.’”

The team almost made it to Asia in one fell swoop, but lacked the necessary paper work.

“We got offered a flight to Islamabad [at Manchester Airport],” Miss Williams said. “But we didn’t have visas and they wouldn’t issue us with boarding passes without visas.

“I wish I had a Pakistani visa, so we could have accepted that flight. It would have been great.”

But once the time limit was past, it was up to teams to get home on their own – an expensive reality for Miss Williams.

“I’m totally broke now,” she said. “We ended up buying a Ryanair flight to Manchester and we had to buy a hotel in Brussels too which was like 60-70 euros, so now I’m completely broke.

“But it was the best feeling in the world sitting down on the plane and knowing you’ll be home within an hour.”

Other teams made it to Switzerland, Holland and France, and one – team ‘Supermario bros’ – didn’t leave Owens Park.

Teams in previous years have made it to Dubai and New York.


More Coverage

Nearly half of student gamblers are gambling more than they can afford

The majority of students (60%) had gambled in the past 12 months, although this was a decrease from last year (71%) 

Pro-Palestinian student groups occupy Simon Building in protest against University

Manchester Leftist Action have occupied the Simon Building to protest alleged University connections with Israel, along with students from UoM Rent Strike and Youth Front for Palestine

Nominations for Students’ Union Awards 2024 now open

Students can nominate themselves or others for the awards, which fall into four separate categories, with each award having its own awards night

UNiDAYS announce opening of Student Woman of the Year competition

The UNiDAYS-run competition aims to support female students who are making a difference and offers a £10,000 first prize for entrepreneurial initiatives