Members of Leeds RAG Society, LUU’s official fundraising body, are raising money for dementia charity The Alzheimer’s Society by taking part in a sponsored hitchhiking challenge.

Nineteen teams made up of RAG society members left campus on Monday morning with the simple goal of traveling as far from Leeds as possible without spending any money on methods of travel.

Teams will be hoping to emulate the success of former RAG jailbreakers who in recent years have managed to travel as far as Paris, Budapest and even New York without spending a penny.

The teams, who will have to negotiate with motorway drivers, train companies and airlines  for free travel, will be taking to twitter as well as posting video updates throughout the 36 hour competition in an effort to raise as much money as possible.

Hannah Gooch, who set off from Leeds this morning with fellow RAG members Rachel Lygoe and Libby Flynn,  said, “I wanted to do a charity jailbreak because it looked like a fun new way of raising money – it’s been really fun to organise and I’m really pleased with how much we’ve raised so far.”

“Although nobody in my family thankfully suffers from Alzheimer’s, as a medical student I’ve seen a lot of patients suffering from the illness and it’s really heart-breaking to watch, and I’d love to think that our work could help make a difference to those people.”

To check the progress of all teams involved please visit:  http://leeds.studentjailbreak.co.uk/jailbreak

Greg Whitaker