Trio to spend the night suspended under Spinnaker Tower

SUSPENDED 100m in the air is no ordinary place to spend the night.
Travel writer and author Phoebe Smith, rigging specialist Ollie Laker and rope specialist and A&E doctor John Pike suspended at the Stadium of Light. Picture: Zak BentleyTravel writer and author Phoebe Smith, rigging specialist Ollie Laker and rope specialist and A&E doctor John Pike suspended at the Stadium of Light. Picture: Zak Bentley
Travel writer and author Phoebe Smith, rigging specialist Ollie Laker and rope specialist and A&E doctor John Pike suspended at the Stadium of Light. Picture: Zak Bentley

But a trio of friends will be sleeping on platforms underneath the heights of the Spinnaker Tower to raise money for charity.

Travel writer and author Phoebe Smith, rigging specialist Ollie Laker and rope specialist and A&E doctor John Pike have joined forces to take on the Extreme Sleep Out challenge.

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The group have spent the last few nights sleeping suspended from landmarks across the UK including the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, Gaping Gill in North Yorkshire and Centrepoint Tower in London.

Tonight’s event at the Spinnaker Tower is the final one.

They are hoping to raise £20,000 for youth homelessness charity Centrepoint.

Phoebe said: ‘We’ve deliberately chosen to take on this challenge and sleep in some very strange places.

‘But the reason doing this is to help those who don’t have a choice about where they spend the night.

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‘I’ve had periods of my life where things have been unstable and I’ve had to rely on the kindness of friends putting me up.

‘Sometimes that little bit of help can make all the difference, which is why we’ve chosen to support Centrepoint.’

Phoebe, Ollie and John have been sleeping on small platforms called portaledges which are rigged and suspended from the different sites. They picked both man-made and natural structures for the challenge which started 10 days ago.

Phoebe added: ‘All the venues are supremely iconic in one way or another.

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‘It has been a real physical challenge getting to some of the places we needed to get to.

‘But even if doing this stops one more person having to sleep somewhere cold, wet and miserable, then it will be completely worth it as far as the three of us are concerned.’

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