TWO members of staff from an Ilkley dental practice are preparing to ‘Zip the Pepper Pot’ in aid of a local hospice.

Stacy Slinger and Nicola Smith, who work at Taylored Dental Care, on The Grove, are taking on the daring challenge in aid of Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice, which serves the Ilkley community.

The Pepper Pot is Lund’s Tower, a stone-built folly situated to the south-west of the North Yorkshire village of Sutton-in-Craven.

Nicola and Stacy will climb the spiral stone steps within the Pepper Pot where they can take in arguably one of Yorkshire’s most breath-taking views.

Then wearing a harness attached to a wire they will whizz 260m at great speed from the top of the tower’s turret to the bottom of the crag, falling 35m as they go. And if that is not enough to get their hearts racing, after 30m, they will pass over the crag face and - if they dare to look down - they’ll have the feeling of leaping off a cliff!

Stacy said: “Our work said we could choose a charity to support for the year, and we didn’t need to think long about who to choose.

“Manorlands is such an amazing place - they were involved in my dad’s care, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2017.

“The care we received before dad passed away was amazing. The care they gave made such a huge difference at such a difficult time. A relative of Nicolas was also cared for at the hospice. Manorlands is predominantly voluntary funded, and we know personally just how important it is to support them to ensure they are able to continue serving our community for years to come.”

Stacy and Nicola want to raise enough money to provide 12 bereavement counselling sessions for children who have lost a parent or loved one. The cost of this would be £720.

Karen Jones, community fundraiser at Manorlands said: “This brand new event promises to be brilliant fun, and we are so grateful to have Taylored Dental Care on board and supporting us.

“Our clinical nurse specialists are the only specialist palliative care nurses working in the Ilkley area and we really need the backing of our local community so we can continue to raise the much needed funds for people in our area with life-limiting conditions.”

To support Stacy and Nicola you can donate at: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stacy-slinger

If you fancy ‘zipping the pepper pot’ you can register through: https://www.sueryder.org/support-us/fundraise/events/manorlands-zip-the-pepper-pot-2019

It takes place on June 22 and 23, 2019, registration is £25 with participants asked to raise £50.