Firefighters take on “Tower to Tower in 24” motorcycle challenge

Four determined motorcycle enthusiasts are set to push the limits of endurance, skill, and teamwork as they take on an ambitious motorcycle challenge to raise funds for two life-saving charities.

Dubbed “Tower to Tower in 24", the challenge, which will take place on Thursday, July 30th at 6pm, will see Mark Schofield and Morgan Roe, both firefighters based at Clitheroe Fire Station, alongside Lee Roe and Josh Stevenson, ride from Blackpool Tower to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and back — all within 24 hours.

The challenge is one with great significance for the group. As serving firefighters, Schofield and Roe have chosen to support The Firefighters' Charity, which provides vital support to members of the UK’s fire services community. The team is also raising funds for the North West Air Ambulance, a critical emergency service that operates without government funding and relies entirely on public donations.

However, the idea for the “Tower to Tower” plan was born initially with alliteration in mind. “We just thought of Blackpool Tower; it's iconic. Tower to tower, could we actually do it? And that's when it started. We looked at the distances. Could we get to the Eiffel Tower in 24 hours? And we thought, yeah, but without challenging ourselves, we could easily do that in half a day,” Lee explained.

“So let's do it there and back in under 24 hours, which, if you work on the national speed limits of both countries, we can do in about 22 hours. So we've got little time available to us for error or hold-ups. Hence the reason we're leaving at 6pm on Thursday: so we can ride through the night for most of the journey and get the majority of the miles under our belt, get to Paris and then obviously make our way back in the early hours of Friday morning,” Lee finished.

Part of the decision to commence their journey at 6pm on Thursday was made intentionally. The four will be riding to avoid rush hour traffic, so they’ll be riding on British roads at night and will be travelling in France in daylight to help the quartet get their bearings. But what came into the decision to travel on motorcycles rather than a car?

“Not only is it a test of endurance and navigation, being able to handle the bikes for so long, but also we've got to do it in that time,” Lee stated. “That's the promise we've made. And with little margin for error, we've really got to our game. One of the beauties is if we do get stuck in a little bit of traffic, particularly on the motorways, it's obviously 100% legal for us to filter a little bit through slow-moving traffic. So that was another reason for doing that on motorcycles. It just gives us that extra edge to be able to filter if we need to try and make up some time,” Lee finished.

The journey will span close to 1,100 miles, with 534 miles separating Blackpool and the Eiffel Tower. In order to complete their journey within the allotted time, they’ll travel from Folkestone to Calais via the Channel Tunnel. A true test of endurance for the quartet who’ve received donated Apex hoodies, which are armoured and waterproof from Roadskin in Tunbridge Wells, and prepared for the challenge by undertaking six- to seven-hour rides in the Yorkshire Dales. However, they’ve been unable to travel the route in advance to map out a route due to Morgan’s firefighting commitments, but he believes the fact it’s a first makes the challenge all the more compelling.

“We've spent a lot of time in the planning phase, choosing the roads very particularly,” Morgan admitted. “I mean, to the point where we've been on street view for some sections, just to get a little bit of familiarity. Unfortunately, with my work schedule and obviously being in the service, we can't unfortunately leave the area unprotected, so it's been a little bit tougher to get time off to be able to do a second trip. And plus, I think that's part of the challenge, not having done the roads before or anything like that. I think it just adds to a little bit of the excitement and a little bit of the jeopardy,” Morgan added.

So far, the quartet have raised £784 of their £2,000 goal, which aims to distribute £1,000 to each of The Firefighters Charity and The North West Air Ambulance. If you wish to support the quartet’s challenge, you can donate over at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/tower2tower