SUPERHEROES FLY IN FOR SEASHELL

Superheroes flew into action recently to raise cash for profoundly disabled young people.

Student teacher Emma Jane Shaw, and her boyfriend Lewis Easdown, both aged 20, donned the iconic costumes to take on the zip wire over Salford Quays for Seashell Trust. The pair also abseiled down the Trafford Centre bell tower recently for the charity.

Left: Emma Jane Shaw and Lewis Easdown ready to go over the top at the Trafford Centre abseil challenge

Emma, aged 20, from Ladybridge Road, Cheadle Hulme, is studying at Manchester Metropolitan University to become a primary school teacher, hoping to specialise in teaching deaf pupils.

Seashell Trust educates and cares for children and young people with some of the most complex disabilities in country and communication disorders including deafness. It runs the Royal School and College Manchester in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport.

Emma said:

“Last year I completed a placement at the Royal School and loved it. When my aunt Catherine Keeler, who works in the school, told me about the abseil, I thought it would be a good way to help. Lewis happily obliged to accompany me. I am pretty sure he just didn’t want to look like a wimp.

“Neither of us were too nervous about the abseil or the zip wire, the views from the top were amazing. Once we had done the abseil, I think we both got a bit of an adrenalin rush and couldn’t wait for the zip wire. Going over the water during the zip wire was a bit odd but so much fun.”

Lewis, from Holliney Road, Peel Hall proved a big hit with some of the visitors who had turned out to watch the fearless fundraisers slide 250 metres from the top of the Imperial War Museum North down to the Lowry.

Emma added:

“Lewis had gone first and when I got to the bottom he was surrounded by children who thought they’d just seen Captain America fly across the quays.

“We raised around £300 between us overall. Hopefully we will be able to get involved with other events and fundraising to support the school.”

Wendy Bray, from Seashell Trust, said:

“We’re so grateful to Emma and Lewis for taking on not one, but two challenges for us in the space of a month. Their costumes were just fantastic and added so much to the day.”