Blue Light Breakout raises £5k

On Thursday, September 12, three teams from the Isle of Wight Emergency Services ‘escaped’ the Island and went ‘on the run’. Their aim was to travel as far as possible, with zero planning and zero money in 50 hours, as they competed in the ‘Blue Light Breakout’ challenge, raising around £5k for Isle of Wight charity ‘The Wight Brainy Bunch’.

The teams consisted of two off duty personnel from Police, Ambulance and Fire services, who took part to support IOW Firefighter Mark Grimes who founded the charity following his diagnosis of a brain tumour in 2015.

The teams left IW Radio at 10am on Thursday, and Team Fire’s Mark Grimes and Ross Smallcombe were finally crowned winners at 12pm Saturday having travelled an incredible 1,760.55 miles to Tenerife. There were emotional scenes as they ended up in the restaurant where Mark had his first seizure in 2014, having been diverted from their original route due to bad weather in Spain, which had seen them trying to reach Gibralter and Morocco.

Tom Ramsey and Iain Lane for team Police clocked up an impressive 1464.56 miles, which took them to Greece, close to the Turkish border. Team Ambulance’s Lynsey Groves and Alasdair Hay made it to the Greek Island of Thassos, having found themselves on the same plane as Team Police from Gatwick, although their final destination was Kavala in Northern Greece, 1399.78 miles from their starting point.

Kathryn Grimes of the Wight Brainy Bunch said: “We cannot thank the teams enough for all they have done. None of them had really heard about The Wight Brainy Bunch prior to this, yet they fully embraced this crazy ‘Breakout’ challenge. We could not have found a nicer or more determined bunch of individuals. They have all gone above and beyond anything we could have ever hoped, to raise money and awareness for our little charity.”

The Wight Brainy Bunch provide emotional support and financial assistance to Isle of Wight families affected by brain tumours. For more information visit: www.thewightbrainybunch.org.uk