We did it – Charity team completes 25-hour bounce challenge

A team of eight staff from Merseyside charity Autism Together has completed a 25-hour attempt to win a Guinness World Record in trampolining. The current record stands at 24 hours.

The challenge, which began at 12 midday on World Autism Awareness Day (Sunday 2 April) came to an end at 1pm today (Monday 3 April).  Its aim was to raise awareness of autism and fundraise for the charity’s Respite Appeal.

A critical shortage of autism-specific respite care in Merseyside means many families are struggling with daily life.  Autism Together plans to build additional rooms onto its respite centre in Wirral.

During the course of the challenge team members have bounced a total height of 49km – or 5.5 times the height of Mount Everest.  At an average of 46 bounces per minute, they’ve bounced a total of 69,000 times.

Guinness World Record staff will scrutinise the record attempt later, confirming that all rules have been strictly adhered to, before making the formal announcement that the record has been achieved.

Challenge organiser Emma Crabb said, “Our hardest shift was 4am until 8am. Your body was ready to wake up but it didn’t want to as we only got ten minutes sleep through the night. When the sun rose and everyone come back into the gym to support us, that raised our morale.

“I’m made up at what we’ve achieved – and especially pleased for members of the team. We’ve all stood by each other.  We even had a party in the middle of the night.”

Bounceathon member Sarah Madge said, “I’m feeling tired and sore but we’ve had a fun time. We’ve had around 40 minutes of sleep in 27 hours. I’ve got sore knees and achy feet but otherwise I’m ok.

“I work as a coach with Autism Together and the clients were my motivation for doing this.  It’s just so good to work with them.”

Autism Together supports over 450 people on the autism spectrum. In 2014 a grant of over £180,000 from Sport England’s Inclusive Fund enabled the charity to set up a trampolining scheme for people on the autism spectrum, based at The Drill. The scheme has since enabled 70 adults each week the chance to have fun and keep fit by bouncing.